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That Blessed Hope 



That Blessed Hope 

The Second Coming of Christ 



Considered with 

Special Reference to Post-Millennial 

and Pre-Millennial Discussions 



2U0O an Bppenotr 
treating of IRelateo topics 



By 

David Heagle, Ph. D., D. D. 



Translator of the " Bremen Lectures 
Author of "Moral Education," etc. 



— Heb. 10 : 37 



Philadelphia 

American Baptist Publication Society 

Boston Chicago Atlanta 

New York St. Louis Dallas 









1l»3Hft3Y of CONGRESS 
Two Cootes Received 

AUG 30 190' 

. CoovnyW Entry 
CLASS A XXC, NO. 

copy a. 



Copyright 1907 by the 
American Baptist Publication Society 



Published August, 1907 



from tbe Society's own press 



PREFACE 

The particular object of the following treatise 
is to mediate somewhat between post-millennialism 
and pre-millennialism, especially as to the time of 
our Lord's second coming. The discouraging view 
taken by the former doctrine, namely, that before 
Christ comes there must intervene yet a thousand 
years or more of time, or a millennium of such ex- 
traordinary nature that it cannot be regarded as 
having, up to the present date, even begun, this 
notion is, and in some shape, always has been, un- 
satisfactory to thinking Christian minds, and even 
to minds not much given to thinking. Consequently 
that view has never been able to obtain universal 
and prolonged recognition. On the contrary, it has 
always had reactions appearing against it, usually 
in the form of pre-millennial or other chiliastic 
schemes — any doctrine that could furnish relief 
from the discouragement and lack of interest con- 
nected with the idea of our Lord's delaying so 
long his advent. 

So also, on the other hand, the pre-millennial 
doctrine of the Saviour's setting up and ruling over 
a kingdom more or less materialistic in its na- 
ture, and a kingdom that should occupy the same 

5 



6 PREFACE 

territory with sin and sinners, this notion too, is so 
contrary to the general Christian conception of the 
final outcome of Christ's redeeming work, or to 
the facts connected with his parousia, that it has 
never been able to obtain, and persistently hold, 
anything like a universal assent of the Christian 
world. Besides, the pre-millennial scheme natu- 
rally tends to fanatical over-expectation, and often 
teaches matters that are extravagant, or simply 
absurd. 

Especially in these times, therefore — so it seems 
to the writer — there are not a few persons (and is 
not the class a growing one?) who are dissatisfied 
both with post-millennial and pre-millennial views. 
Certainly objections can easily be made to at least 
one or two items of post-millennialism, and also 
to nearly the whole pre-millennial doctrine — all of 
it, we may say, except its earnest protest against 
putting off the coming of our Lord to so distant 
a date. Such being the case with the two general 
views mentioned, it must, after all, not be con- 
cluded that because neither of these views has, as 
a whole, been universally received, therefore there 
is no truth in either. On the contrary, this very 
fact of only a partial reception of each of the views, 
is conclusive proof that there must be at least some 
truth, as well as error, in them both. That is the 
position taken by this work. 

The truth in pre-millennialism is undoubtedly, 
as has been said, its vigorous and persistent protest 



PREFACE 7 

against interjecting yet so long a period of time — 
a thousand years or more — between the coming of 
Christ and our day. And the truth or truths in 
post-millennialism are, first, its teaching relative to 
the spiritual nature of our Lord's kingdom; and 
secondly, its doctrine respecting the purposes for 
which Christ will come the second time — to raise 
the dead, judge the world, and " restore all things," 
or usher in his everlasting kingdom. 

In this way it is attempted to reconcile at least 
some of the teachings of pre-millennialism with 
those of post-millennialism, and thus deduce a doc- 
trine respecting the advent of our Lord which shall 
be both more comforting and inspiring to the 
Christian heart and mind, and also more scriptural 
in its character, than is either of the common or 
well-known doctrines we have been considering. 

To accomplish this purpose it was found neces- 
sary to eliminate from the time-determining factors 
of the second advent, that malum discordice which 
has always been so prominent in eschatological dis- 
cussions, namely, the millennium, or Christ's reign 
of a thousand years with some of his saints, as is 
prophesied in the twentieth chapter of Revelation. 
The reign there spoken of we understand to be an 
insolvable mystery, which no interpretation ever 
yet proposed has been able so to explain as not to 
come into conflict with other and clearly taught 
doctrines of Scripture ; the best interpretation of 
that passage probably being that it refers to some 



8 PREFACE 

privileges which were to be enjoyed only by certain 
of the saints, i. e., the martyrs and confessors, 
who " were beheaded for the witness of Jesus," etc. 
But whether those privileges were to be experienced 
on earth or in heaven, or what was to be the time of 
Christ's millennial reign, or just what should be 
its peculiar character — respecting all that, reve- 
lation is silent. We regard, therefore, this whole 
matter of the millennium as a mystery; and we 
affirm of it only that it cannot be used as a time-de- 
termining factor with which to figure out the date 
of our Lord's second coming. Consequently we dis- 
miss the millennium from our discussion of that 
particular ; and by so doing we have been able, we 
think, not only to avoid the difficulties into which 
pre-millennialism and post-millennialism necessarily 
fall, but also to construct a doctrine respecting the 
second advent which embodies, in a consistent 
and easily to be understood whole, the various 
teachings of Scripture on the subject. 

The most distinguishing feature, therefore, of 
this treatise, is the disposition which it makes of 
the millennium, and also its reconciliation of post- 
millennial views with those of pre-millennialism. 
Its design being pacificatory, the work may prop- 
erly be termed an irenicon. 

In an appendix quite a number of related topics 
have been considered ; which addition is believed to 
be particularly important as bringing the work more 
up to date, and making it more complete. Also 



PREFACE 9 

from the examination given to some of these special 
topics it can be seen how thoroughgoing and funda- 
mental recent discussions, on one side and another 
of our Lord's parousia, have been in their work. 

And it might still be remarked, in explanation of 
certain features connected with the form and gen- 
eral arrangement of the main portion of this work, 
that this part was originally prepared, and appeared 
as articles in a religious newspaper, in which shape 
also it was widely read. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

PREFACE . . . . * 5 



I 



PRELIMINARIES 

"That Blessed Hope" 15 

History of the Doctrine 17 

A New Eschatological Movement 20 

Differences of Opinion 23 

What May be Expected 25 



II 



MATTERS CLEARLY REVEALED 

Certainty of the Lord' s Coming 27 

Testimony of Science to End of the World ... 28 

Scripture Declarations 31 

Personal Form of the Advent 34 

Jesus' Return Not a Coming at Death 36 

Other Items as to the Manner 37 

Special Objects of the Parousia 38 

Raising of the Dead • . 38 

General Judgment 39 

"The Restitution of All Things " 41 

11 



1 2 CONTENTS 

III 
TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING PAGE 

Two Leading Views 45 

The Millennial Controversy 47 

Objections to Pre-Millennialism 49 

Objection to Post-Millennialism 52 

The Millennium More Fully Considered .... 55 

Solution of the Difficulties 58 

Time Estimates 60 



IV 

TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING THE SUBJECT CONTINUED 

The Millennium Again 62 

Time-determining Facts 65 

Progress of Fulfilled Prophecy 65 

Prophetic Numbers 67 

Line of Jewish Tradition 68 

' ' Times of the Gentiles " 70 

The Two Thousand Three Hundred Days of 

Daniel 71 

Time of the Papal Supremacy 74 

Value of These Predictions 75 



TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING THE SUBJECT CONTINUED 

Symbolical Beasts 79 

The Seals, Trumpets, and Vials 82 

Matters More Specially Determinative. List of the 

Signs 85 

Wars and Rumors of Wars, etc 87 



CONTENTS 1 3 

VI 

TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING — THE SUBJECT CONCLUDED 

Three Great Antecedent Events — PAGK 

(i) Ingathering of the Gentiles 90 

(2) Conversion of the Jews . . • 98 

Question of Their Return to the Holy 
Land, Rebuilding of Jerusalem, etc. . 10 1 

(3) Antichrist ; or the Great Apostasy . . . 103 

Possibility of a Second Apostasy . . .108 



VII 



GENERAL CONCLUSIONS I09 

PRACTICAL IMPROVEMENT OF SUBJECT 112 



APPENDIX 
TREATING OF RELATED TOPICS 

(For Index to Appendix see pp. 173-176.) 



"The Redeemer's second appearing is the very pole- 
star of the church. That it is so held forth in the New 
Testament, is beyond dispute. Let any one do himself the 
justice to collect and arrange the evidence on the subject, and 
he will be surprised — if the study be new to him — at once at 
the copiousness, the variety, and the conclusiveness of it." 

— Dr. David Brown {post-millennarian). 



• • Bickersteth affirms, after careful examination, that one 
verse in thirty of the New Testament relates to the second 
coming of Christ. If to these are added the numerous 
references in the Old Testa?nent to the same momentous 
event, surpassing the allusions that are made to his first 
coming in the proportion of at least twenty to one, some 
conception may be formed of the prominence given in the 
word of God to the doctrine here advocated." 

— Dr. James H. Brookes (pre-millennariari). 



"It is moreover, in the New Testament, the great event 
that towers above every other. The heaven that gives back 
Christ, gives back all we have loved and lost ; solves all 
doubts and ends all sorrows. His coming looks in upon the 
whole life of the chzirch, as a lofty mountain peak looks in 
upon every little valley and sequestered home around its 
base, and belongs to them all alike. Every generation lies 
under the shadow of it, for whatever is transcendently great 
is constantly near, and in moments of high conviction it 
absorbs petty interests and annihilates intervals." 

— Rev. John Ker, of Scotland. 



That Blessed Hope 



PRELIMINARIES 

This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, 
shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into 
heaven. Acts 1 : 1 1. 

rHAT Blessed Hope. The hope of the second 
coming of Christ is one of the strongest 
and also one of the most widely operative of all 
that belong to our Christian faith. Moreover, this 
hope is one that acts not merely at present, or 
upon our own day and generation; but also in 
times past it has commanded the attention and in- 
terest of multitudes of people, and so undoubtedly 
it will continue to do in the future. Generations 
yet unborn will be stirred more or less widely and 
deeply by this great expectation of the Lord's com- 
ing, as has been the case with not a few generations 
now dead. 

One peculiarity of this hope is the fact that, not- 
withstanding it has often failed in the past, or has 
so frequently disappointed expectations regarding 

15 



1 6 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

itself, it yet has always survived these disappoint- 
ments, and despite all its failures or seeming fail- 
ures, it again comes to the front, and is to-day as 
active and wide-awake a topic as ever before. In- 
deed it is, as an eminent writer on the subject has 
called it, " the very pole star of the church " — the 
star not only directing and prompting our Christian 
activity, but the object also of our aspiration and 
desire. For the realization of this hope it is that 
we labor and pray. For its realization it is that 
all our missionary operations are undertaken and 
carried forward; and for the attainment of this 
same great end of the Saviour's second advent it is 
that all preaching and praying and all other religious 
exercises are, at least in a measure, conducted. In- 
deed, all our religious endeavor circulates, it may 
be said, more or less around that " blessed hope, and 
the glorious appearing of the great God and our 
Saviour Jesus Christ," as the apostle terms the 
matter. 

To be sure, there are now-a-days, as there have 
been always, persons who, like the scoffers of whom 
Peter speaks, tauntingly ask : " Where is the prom- 
ise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep 
all things continue as they were " : but after all, the 
number of those who do not believe in the coming 
of Christ at some time is comparatively small. In 
all the ages, and wherever Christianity has been, the 
great majority of persons who have been willing 
to confess to anything whatever of a positive nature 



PRELIMINARIES 1 7 

respecting the facts or doctrines of our Christian 
religion, have been willing, and have rejoiced, to 
confess to this doctrine of Christ's advent. So, for 
example, in that oldest of all the creeds formulated 
in Christendom — the creed known as the Apostles', 
— it reads not only " I believe " that Jesus Christ 
" rose from the dead, he ascended into heaven, and 
is now seated at the right hand of God the Father," 
but also that " from thence he will come to judge 
the quick and the dead " ; — and because this sym- 
bol so states, it is able to add, " I believe also in 
the resurrection of the dead, and in the life 
everlasting." 

History of the Doctrine. But now, when we look 
over the history of this doctrine as it has been in the 
past, we see that there have been times when the 
subject has taken, so to speak, a wider and more 
inspiring lodgment in the minds and hearts of men 
than it has at others, or that there have been special 
movements in the interest of this topic, and move- 
ments that have generally been connected with the 
idea of Christ's coming speedily. So, for instance, 
it was even in the days of the apostles. Indeed, 
it would seem that scarcely had the words of the 
angels who — as in the quotation at the head of this 
chapter — promised the disciples on the mount of 
Olives, as they stood there gazing after their as- 
cended Lord, that " this same Jesus who was taken 
up from them into heaven, would so come again in 
like manner as they had seen him depart " ; scarcely, 

B 



1 8 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

it would seem, had these comforting words of 
the angels died away in the hearing of the disciples, 
before they, or at least some of them, began to in- 
dulge the hope of Jesus' speedy return. For we 
read that " with great joy " did these disciples re- 
turn to Jerusalem, after having witnessed the ascen- 
sion. But be this as it may, we know from other 
sources that, very early in the history of the apos- 
tolic church, there occurred quite an extensive 
movement in the interest of the idea that Christ 
would come soon, possibly even in the days of the 
apostles; and especially was this movement rife 
in that portion of the church which had come 
into it from the ranks of the Jews. To overcome 
this tendency, and to give the churches better ideas 
in general respecting the matter of Christ's com- 
ing again, it was that Paul wrote, e. g., his second 
letter to the Thessalonians, besides other words of 
his in the same line. Also similar efforts were 
made by some of the other writers in the New 
Testament. 

But of course Christ did not come in that period ; 
and the next we read of any special interest being 
excited as to the matter of his advent, is in the 
second and third centuries, and perhaps also in a 
part of the fourth. At this time great and wide- 
spread interest took place not only regarding the 
matter of Christ's coming speedily, but also and 
especially regarding this idea as connected with 
that of the millennium, or the literal personal reign 



PRELIMINARIES 1 9 

of the Saviour on earth for a thousand years. So, 
under the excitement of these two ideas obtaining at 
once, the movement became very general, and num- 
bered among its adherents many learned teachers 
of theology. So much was this the case, or so 
general did the movement become, and so respect- 
able was it in character, that the period of it has 
been called the golden or flowering one in the 
history of the doctrine, and especially of this 
doctrine as related to the millennium. 

The next manifestation of special interest in 
this subject took place away down the centuries, or 
in the Middle Ages at about the year iooo, and 
also some considerable time after that, in connection 
with the first Crusades. The year iooo, it was 
thought, indicated not only that the first thousand 
years of Christian history was past, but also that — 
inasmuch as this period might, by being properly 
regarded, be identified with the millennium — it in- 
dicated also that the time for the end of the world 
had come, and so also, of course, for the return of 
Christ. Because of such belief, therefore, a wide- 
spread feeling of uneasiness existed at the time. 
Moreover, in connection with the victories at first 
achieved by the Crusaders, it was thought that these 
extraordinary events portended others still more 
extraordinary and glorious — perhaps even the com- 
ing of the Lord. This belief — or rather it was a 
kind of vague apprehension — seems to have spread 
all through Europe and in other parts of the world, 



20 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

wherever Christians dwelt or happened at the time 
to be. 

But the period passed, and even yet Christ did 
not make his appearance; and so we are brought 
down to the time of the Protestant Reformation. At 
this period there sprang up, in connection with the 
great successes achieved by Luther and his coad- 
jutors, and especially in connection with the widely 
spread popular belief that the pope was Antichrist, 
or the opposing wicked power which was to be 
destroyed by the brightness of Christ's coming, 
quite a number of movements in the interest of this 
same idea of the Lord's coming speedily. Also 
since that day there have been several movements, 
more or less extensive, of a similar nature. The 
Millerite excitement, which occurred, or came to 
its end, in 1843, an d which was so disastrous in 
many instances, was a movement of this kind. 

A New Eschatological Movement. But now 
again, in these times of ours, despite all the failures 
which have taken place in the past, and despite the 
fact that all attempts at locating or prophesying 
the time when the Lord would appear, have, so far 
at least, proved utterly futile and in vain — even yet 
we have, here at the beginning of our century, a 
movement in progress respecting this same idea of 
Christ's speedy coming. It is a movement which 
has spread far and wide among the different de- 
nominations of Christians, and which, so far as 
enthusiasm is concerned, is or has been perhaps 



PRELIMINARIES 21 

the equal of any of those which have preceded it. l 
Now, we are assured, the Saviour will come with- 
out failure. Notwithstanding that, in time past, 
there have been so many disappointments, there 
will be none now. Not only is it certain that our 
Lord will come soon, but he may be expected at 
any time. This is a view held, not simply by a 
few fanatics, but by great numbers of people, and 
by many who are earnest and sober-minded schol- 
ars, persons standing high in the church and in 
some of our theological schools, and noted both 
for their scholarship and good judgment. This 
being the case, of course the movement must be 
pronounced a very respectable one; and it has 
stirred up a good deal of interest, even outside of 
itself, in the general subject of our Lord's coming. 
When will Christ make his appearance? That is 
the question now engaging the attention of many 
minds. Men are anxious, earnest, wistful about 
this matter. They have been looking out eagerly 
into the spiritual heavens, to see if they could dis- 
cern from the signs of the times when that great 
event will take place. And not only this, but they 
have been looking also into the Bible for its prom- 
ises, to see if they could find in these anything 
that would direct them in their study, or at least 
confirm them in views already formed. 



1 The enthusiasm and general interest connected with this view 
does not seem to be as great now (1907) as was the case a few 
years ago, when the above was written. 



22 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

Perhaps some persons who may read this are con- 
nected with that movement, or have adopted some 
of its notions. However that may be, certainly all 
Christians can unite in the desire for the Saviour's 
speedy coming. All can earnestly say, in the words 
of the well-known hymn: 

How long, dear Saviour, oh, how long 

Shall that bright hour delay? 
Roll swiftly round, ye wheels of time, 

And bring the appointed day! 

Or they can say, in the words with which John, 
closing his Revelation, responds to the Master's 
promise that he would come quickly, " Even so, 
come, Lord Jesus! " — come quickly! 

Now, whatever may be one's opinion respecting 
the movement which we have noticed, or whatever 
ideas he may have respecting the speedy coming of 
Christ, or of that coming as being yet away off in 
the future, certainly the movement itself is, as we 
have said, a very respectable one, and equally cer- 
tain is it that the subject which is thus brought, so 
to speak, afresh to our minds, is of no little impor- 
tance, and one that is well worthy of study. If it 
is so, as they tell us, that we are now living near 
the borders of a new and most extraordinary era 
in the history of our world and of ourselves, then 
surely we ought to know all we can about that 
matter; and whether this is true or otherwise, the 
general topic of Christ's second and glorious 



PRELIMINARIES 23 

appearing is surely one to which attention and 
study can be profitably given. 

Differences of Opinion. Coming then to the gen- 
eral theme of our Lord's second advent, we may 
remark of it, yet in a preliminary way, that prob- 
ably no one of all the doctrines connected with the 
general system of our Christian faith has been or 
is now more under discussion, or has had connected 
with it more differences of opinion than has been 
the case with just this one. Opinions here differ 
not only regarding the doctrine as a whole, but 
seemingly also regarding every individual feature 
of this doctrine. For example, there are differences 
of opinion with regard to what may be called the 
manner or the form of the Saviour's appearing. On 
the one hand is the orthodox doctrine, which we 
think is also the true one — that Christ will come 
in person, or that, as his firs f advent was made by 
himself physically, so it will be also with his second 
advent. But now, as opposed to this view, the 
rationalistic theory teaches that the coming of our 
Lord will be, or is, only one through intermediate 
agencies, by his word or Spirit, or in " the clouds 
of events," as the matter has been worded. Then, 
again, as to the purposes, or concomitant events, of 
the Saviour's advent there have been the widest 
differences of opinion. For example, the pre-mil- 
lennial theory, instead of accepting the more com- 
monly taught doctrine, that Christ will come to 
raise the dead, judge the world, and usher in his 



24 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

everlasting kingdom, teaches that at least one pur- 
pose of that coming will be to bring about what in 
pre-millennial language is called the rapture — that 
is, a catching-up of the saints to dwell with the 
Lord for a time in the air, during which period the 
judgments of God will — so the pre-millennialists 
tell us — be poured out upon the wicked. Then after 
the rapture, this theory teaches, there will come a 
thousand years of literal personal reign by the 
Saviour on the earth with his saints, or the millen- 
nium; and then, after the millennium, comes the 
judgment of the ungodly, and lastly the end of the 
world. In many points this pre-millennial scheme 
is different from the theory which, being more 
generally received, we will call the reigning view. 

The particular feature of our doctrine, however, 
regarding which there have been most different 
opinions, or at all events, regarding which opinions 
have differed most widely, and seemingly with most 
irreconcilable opposition, one from another, is that 
feature which has to do with the time of the Sav- 
iour's advent. Is that time away off in the future? 
or is it to be regarded as near ? The answers given 
to these questions have differed so much, and have 
been so directly in contradiction one to the other, 
that all attempts at reconciling them, or at coming 
here to any satisfactory and definite conclusion, 
would seem to be in vain ; and therefore many peo- 
ple have come to look upon this part of our subject 
as involved in hopeless confusion or uncertainty. 



PRELIMINARIES 25 

What, then, are we to do with this matter? Is 
there no way of coming to a solution of the time 
when our Lord will make his appearance ? or is this 
whole subject to be dismissed as an inscrutable mys- 
tery, one respecting which nothing can be really 
known, and therefore as a thing all study spent upon 
which must be spent in vain ? Not a few people take 
this view of the matter. To them it seems that 
neither in the Bible, nor out of the Bible, nor from 
any source whatever, is there to be derived any im- 
portant light that will elucidate this dark and in- 
solvable problem; and so they just dismiss it — pass 
it by without investigation. Then there are others 
who seem to have a kind of superstitious feeling to- 
ward this particular subject; and because they read 
in their Bibles that " of that day and hour knoweth 
no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but the Father 
only," therefore they look upon this matter of the 
time of Christ's coming as something that is sacred 
or forbidden, and hence as something all studying of 
which would seem to be almost wicked. 

But neither with one nor the other of these views 
do we sympathize. Our position is that nothing in 
the Bible is too sacred for investigation, otherwise 
it would never have been placed there, nor would 
we be told, as we are in the Apocalypse, respecting 
this very matter under consideration, that this book 
of John's prophecy was " a revelation which God 
gave to Jesus Christ, to show unto his servants 
things which must shortly come to pass." And on 



26 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

the other hand, we do not sympathize with the view 
which regards the whole subject of the time when 
our Lord will appear as an inscrutable mystery; 
for we think there is given to us from the Bible, 
from human history, and even from the natural 
world round about us, no small amount of light, 
that will very largely at least elucidate this mystery. 
What we mean is, that there are facts in the Bible, 
and in human history, and even some in nature, all 
bearing upon the topic of the world's end, or of 
the time when Christ will make his appearance ; and 
by using these facts rightly, ascertaining what they 
are, and comparing some of them with others — 
facts in the Bible with those outside of the Bible — 
we can in this way come to some conclusions respect- 
ing the matter in hand that will be both definite and 
satisfactory. At all events, we can thus come to 
some convictions of our own; and so far as these 
convictions are intelligent or well founded, so far 
they should be also both satisfactory and definite. 



II 

MATTERS CLEARLY REVEALED 

For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, 
when we made known unto you the power and coming 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1 : 16. 

IN our last chapter we spoke of some differences 
of opinion respecting various items belonging 
to the Lord's second coming. But there are some 
other matters connected with that great and im- 
portant event which are so clearly and fully re- 
vealed in Scripture that no doubt can be entertained 
regarding them. One of these matters is the 

Certainty of the Advent. That our Lord will most 
surely come at some time is a matter very abun- 
dantly taught in the Bible. Indeed, it would seem 
that, even from the light of nature, one might here 
come to a definite and positive conclusion. For even 
a scanty examination of facts belonging to nature, 
is sufficient to show that, as our world very evi- 
dently had a beginning, so it must also have an end ; 
and in the usual theological way of thinking the 
end of the world means the same thing as the sec- 
ond coming of Christ. When the one occurs the 
other will occur also, or the two events are simply 
concomitant. Any line of argument, therefore, 

27 



28 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

which establishes the event of the world's termina- 
tion as one that is sure to occur at some time, estab- 
lishes also, and with equal certainty, the second 
coming of Christ. 

Testimony of Science. But as we have already 
said, there are facts appearing in the natural world 
which justify the belief that it, or at least the present 
order of things belonging to it, must at some time 
end. So, for example, the great epoch-making facts 
revealed in a geological study of our globe — these 
teach us that, in the past at least, there have been 
great changes occurring in the physical formation 
of our earth, changes which have amounted to real 
beginnings and endings; and if such has been the 
case in times gone by, why shall not the same state 
of things continue in the future? In other words, 
geology testifies to the effect that the same laws 
continuing in the future which have been operative 
in the past, then an end to the present order of 
things belonging to our world must certainly occur. 
And so we have a doctrine taught by natural science 
that, to say the least, is not at variance with the 
teaching of Scripture, namely, that there is an end 
of the world coming, which is inwrought as it were 
into its very structure, and so also that Christ's 
advent will take place. 

The same, or a very similar doctrine, is taught by 
facts connected with what may be called the science 
of political economy. If in the future the population 
of our globe continues to increase at the same rate 



MATTERS CLEARLY REVEALED 20, 

as it has in the past, 1 then evidently the time must 
come when, notwithstanding all the improvements 
made in obtaining and in economically using the 
necessaries of human life, the whole earth itself 
will, as a producing power, be insufficient to furnish 
these necessaries; and when that state of things 
arrives, then, of course, the existence of man upon 
this planet is doomed. So here again we have 
prophesied, even by some of the facts of nature, the 
second coming of our Lord as an event concomitant 
with the world's termination. 

But the most numerous and convincing testi- 
monies of a physical order, which have a bearing 
upon the topic under consideration, are those which 
can be gotten from the study of astronomy. Here 
the facts teach us not only that other worlds, like 
ours, have already ceased to exist — or at all events, 
such were the appearances of things occurring in the 
heavens — but also that, if the nebular hypothesis 
is to be accepted as correct, then perhaps there is 
something in the nature of things requiring worlds, 
once having an existence, to return, after a long 



1 According to Malthus, population increases in geometrical 
progression, while food-supply increases only in arithmetical pro- 
gression; which law, if correct and universally applicable, would 
soon fill the world so full of human beings that general starva- 
tion would necessarily result. Hence nature provides checks in the 
way of wars, plagues, etc., for keeping down population. Still, 
with all the checks, the population of the earth continually grows; 
and it is estimated that during the last one hundred years it has 
about doubled, or increased from some six or eight hundred millions 
to, perhaps, over fifteen hundred millions. 



30 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

period of years, to their original nebular, or more 
or less chaotic, state of being. To explain this idea 
more fully : there have, we are told by astronomers, 
disappeared from their places in the heavens, dur- 
ing the last two or three hundred years, something 
like thirteen of the fixed stars — that is, stars all of 
which were suns ; and the evidence of this being the 
case is that these stars, once having been seen, are 
now seen no more. A remarkable instance of the 
kind occurred in the time of Tycho Brahe — or in 
1 572- 1 574 — when there shone out in the northern 
heavens (in the constellation Cassiopeia), for some 
considerable time, a star that attracted a good deal 
of attention. It was so bright and large that even 
in the daytime it could be seen with the naked eye ; 
and one peculiarity of its light was that it changed 
its color, at first appearing as a dazzling white, then 
turning to reddish yellow, and lastly to a pale ash. 
These phenomena continued with the star for some 
sixteen months, and then it wholly disappeared. 1 



1 Grant, in his " History of Physical Astronomy," mentions quite 
a number of similar instances; where, apparently, stars have for 
a time shone out with extraordinary or unusual brilliancy, and 
then, by gradual changes in appearance, have seemed to become 
extinct. But now whether in such cases an actual destruction 
occurs, or whether the changes are due only to some causes mak- 
ing the phenomena periodic — about this astronomers are not agreed. 
Prof. G. W. Hough, director of the Dearborn Observatory, at 
Evanston, 111., to whom we referred for the latest knowledge or 
settled opinion on the subject, informs us that no fully satisfactory 
theory with regard to the matter has yet been advanced; but 
that nothing is known or believed among astronomers subversive 
of the idea that the phenomena in question are really worlds 



MATTERS CLEARLY REVEALED 3 1 

Now, from the peculiar appearances connected with 
the object Tycho Brahe supposed that in the first 
place it originated from an ethereal substance, of 
which he imagined the Milky Way to be composed, 
and that afterward it was dissipated by the light of 
the sun and of the other stars, or by some cause 
acting internally. But a more modern theory is that 
the phenomenon was a world in conflagration — an 
idea which would seem to be supported especially by 
the changes of color mentioned. 

Whatever the interpretation, certain it is that such 
phenomena agree not only with what would seem to 
be the requirement of the nebular hypothesis — 
namely, that a burning gaseous form of existence 
is the original state from which all the worlds have 
derived their being, and also the state to which they 
all will return — but also with the Scripture doc- 
trine, that " the heavens and earth which are now, 
are reserved unto fire, and the elements shall melt 
with fervent heat" (2 Peter 3 : 7-10). Hence even 
on a theme so peculiarly Christian as that of our 
Lord's second advent, there is at least confirmatory 
evidence from good scientific sources. 

Scripture Declarations. But, of course, all this 
testimony about the end of the world is at best only 
a far-off and an indirect deposition in favor of the 

burning up. He also regards, as very probable, the notion now 
prevalent among astronomers, that our sun is doomed at some 
time to become, from combustion, a dark and cold body; which 
notion would also seem to indicate an ending of all material worlds, 
or of their returning to an original chaotic state. 



32 



THAT BLESSED HOPE 



subject which we have in hand ; the only positive and 
thoroughly convincing evidence is, after all, that 
which comes from the Scriptures. The Scripture 
testimony, however, is thoroughly convincing, and 
exists in greatest abundance. 

To select from the mass only here and there a 
specimen, we have, for example, away back in the 
Old Testament times, the words of Enoch, the sev- 
enth from Adam, which words are preserved in the 
book of Jude (ver. 14, 15). Enoch says, " Behold, he 
cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute 
judgment upon all, and to convince all that are un- 
godly among them of their ungodly deeds. ,, So 
Moses also, living in the older period of the world's 
history, says, " The Lord came from Sinai, and rose 
up from Seir; he shined forth from Mount Paran, 
and he came with ten thousand of his saints " (Deut. 
33 : 2) . Job too, one of the Old Testament worthies, 
deposes in favor of the Lord's coming, as a matter 
connected with the resurrection of the body. Says 
he, " For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that 
he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth : and 
though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet 
in my flesh shall I see God" (19: 25, 26). 
Very plainly also does David — as, for instance in the 
Ninety-sixth Psalm (ver. 11-13) — testify and rejoice 
concerning the Lord's advent, saying, " Let the 
heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad, before the 
Lord ; for he cometh, he cometh to judge the earth ; 
he shall judge the world with righteousness, and 



MATTERS CLEARLY REVEALED 33 

the people with his truth." So also in many other 
places of the Old Testament there are testimonies 
and prophecies, some of them very glowing and 
grand, respecting the Messiah's coming; only one 
of which we will mention. It is found in the book 
of Malachi, at the very end of the Old Testament 
revelation. " Behold, I will send you Elijah the 
prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful 
day of the Lord " — words which refer undoubtedly 
to the last coming of Christ as judge of the world, 
as well as to his first coming as a Saviour. 

But it is especially the New Testament affirma- 
tions that exist in abundance, as well as that they 
also are most conclusive. Says the Saviour himself, 
respecting this matter of his second advent, " I will 
come to you" (John 14: 18) ; and " I go to pre- 
pare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a 
place for you, / will come again and receive you 
unto myself" {ibid., 2, 3). So, in reference to his 
coming in judgment, he says, " When the Son of 
man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels 
with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his 
glory" (Matt. 25 : 31). So also Paul and Peter, 
and other of the apostles, or writers in general who 
speak to us in the New Testament Scriptures — they 
assure us again and again, and in language unmis- 
takably clear and positive, that the Lord, as cer- 
tainly as he was taken up into heaven, so certainly 
will he come again. Peter is enthusiastic about the 
matter, saying, " We have not followed cunningly 
c 



34 ?HAT BLESSED HOPE 

devised fables, when we made known unto you the 
power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 
Peter 1 : 16). Hebrews also emphasizes the matter, 
declaring, " Yet a little while, and he that shall come 
wjll come, and will not tarry" (10 : 37). 

The second coming of our Lord, therefore, is as 
well established by Scripture testimony — to say 
nothing of the argument which we drew from facts 
in nature bearing upon the end of the world as a 
concomitant event — as it is possible for a matter 
thus to be established. 

Personal Form of the Advent. Christ will, then, 
most surely come ; and that the form of his coming 
will be a personal one, and not simply a coming 
through intermediate agencies, in events, or by 
his word, or Spirit, is a matter as to which we have 
the clearest and most abundant proofs from the 
Bible. His first advent was a personal one; and 
the prophecies relating to it are no clearer, and no 
more of a personal nature, than those which relate 
to his second advent. Moreover, it is the same 
Jesus who ascended into heaven that will come 
again, and in like manner as he departed. " I go 
away," said the Saviour, " and come again unto 
you" (John 14:28). The acts and experiences at- 
tributed to Christ in connection with his second com- 
ing, such as the part he is to take in the scenes of 
the judgment, are all of too intensely a personal 
nature to admit of any dispensing with his real 
presence. Besides, the very fact that at his coming 



MATTERS CLEARLY REVEALED 35 

our Lord is to appear, or come in such fashion 
as that he can be seen, implies not only his bodily 
presence at that advent, but also that he will come 
himself in the body. " Every eye shall see him," 
says John, " and they also which pierced him " 
(Rev. 1:7). Also in another place, "It doth not 
yet appear what we shall be; but we know that 
when he shall appear, we shall be like him ; for we 
shall see him as he is" (i John 3:2). Christians 
are described as those who are " looking for that 
blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great 
God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2 : 13). 
And " unto them that look for him shall he appear 
the second time without sin unto salvation " — so 
promises the author of the letter to the Hebrews 
(9:28). Paul also, if possible to make the 
matter still stronger, says not only that " when 
Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye 
also appear with him in glory " (Col. 3:4), but also 
that it is " the Lord himself " who " shall descend 
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the arch- 
angel, and with the trump of God " ( 1 Thess. 4 : 16) . 
If it is possible, therefore, by the use of the most 
intense personal pronouns, and by the use of other 
such descriptions and words as can mean the 
Saviour and no one else, to signify that Christ will 
surely come in person, that is the very thing abun- 
dantly taught in the Scriptures. 1 

1 For a discussion of the theories of Christ's coming in the 
destruction of Jerusalem, by his Spirit, and like views, see Appendix. 



& 



THAT BLESSED HOPE 



Jesus' Return Not a Coming at Death. Moreover 
we are to understand, by the Scripture representa- 
tions, that our Lord's second advent is a different 
thing from his coming to individuals at death. In 
the last chapter of John's Gospel there is an account 
of nearly the last meeting that Jesus had with his 
disciples. It was after the resurrection, and the 
meeting took place on the shore of Lake Genesaret. 
At this solemn and interesting interview, some con- 
versation took place between Jesus and his disciples 
relative to the death of John. Already Jesus had 
intimated to Peter that he (that is Peter) should die 
by crucifixion. Then Peter, turning about, and 
seeing John stand near-by, says : " Lord, and what 
shall this man do ? " That is, what shall be the man- 
ner of John's death ? The answer which Jesus gives 
to this question marks a very clear distinction be- 
tween death as a human experience and his return 
to our world. Said he, " If I will that he tarry till 
I come, what is that to thee ? " These words imply 
not only that John might survive all the other dis- 
ciples, and live until Jesus came, but also that, in 
the mind of Jesus, his return was not connected, or 
to be connected, with death as experienced by the 
other disciples, or by any person whatever. For 
it is not to John as dying, but as living, as tarrying 
until after the other disciples were dead, that this 
promise of experiencing Christ's return is obviously 
made by the words under consideration. The two 
things therefore, death as a human experience and 



MATTERS CLEARLY REVEALED 3? 

Christ's second advent to our world, cannot mean 
the same thing. Other testimonies in the same line 
could be easily adduced. 

Other Items as to the Manner. Certain it is, then, 
not only that Christ will come and that his advent 
will be one of a personal nature, but also that, as we 
have just seen, there is a very great difference be- 
tween his coming to individuals at death and his 
coming to the world the second time. These are 
all items, as we conceive them, belonging to the 
general manner of his appearance. 

Other such items are, first, that the Lord will 
come in a glorious fashion. Not the second time 
will he appear as a little child lying in a manger; 
but he will come seated high upon a throne ; he will 
make his appearance " with power and great 
glory " ; " with a shout, with the voice of the arch- 
angel, and with the trump of God " — in that glorious 
fashion will he descend. 

Moreover, he will not come alone, but attended 
by "all the holy angels" (Matt. 25:31), and by 
" ten thousand of his saints." " Them also which 
sleep in Jesus will God bring with him " ( 1 Thess. 
4 : 14) ; and John saw, among the redeemed, " a 
great multitude, which no man could number." 

Also he will make his appearance very suddenly. 
" As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shin- 
eth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of 
the Son of man be " (Matt. 24 : 27). And his ap- 
pearance is compared to a thief stealing upon one 



38 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

in the night; also to travail coming upon a woman 
with child. Moreover, it is likened to Noah's flood 
destroying the world, and to the destruction of 
Sodom by fire coming down from heaven. " They 
did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they 
planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot 
went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone 
from heaven, and destroyed them all" (Luke 17: 
28,29). 

Still one other item it may be well to notice as 
connected with the general manner of Jesus' com- 
ing. It is that, as Zechariah says (14:4), when he 
comes, " his feet shall stand upon the mount of 
Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east," an 
expression which may signify that, as the Mount 
of Olives was the place from which he ascended 
into heaven, this may be also the place first visited 
by him on his return to our world. But how 
this is we will not attempt to say, not believing 
much in the materialistic or literal method of 
interpretation. 

Special Objects of the Parousia. There are still 
the special objects or designs for which it is that 
the Lord will make his appearance ; and these also, 
we believe, are so clearly indicated by the Scriptures 
that no doubt need be entertained in their regard. 
There are three such objects, as we understand them 
from the Scripture representation. One of them is 
the raising of the dead, or to accomplish what is 
called the general resurrection. " The hour is com- 



MATTERS CLEARLY REVEALED 39 

ing," said the Saviour, " in the which all that are in 
the graves shall hear his voice (that is, the voice of 
the Son of God), and shall come forth; they that 
have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and 
they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of 
damnation" (John 5 : 28, 29). Daniel also, in 
nearly the same form of expression, says there will 
be a resurrection both of the wise and the unwise 
(12 : 2, 3). And that this general resurrection will 
occur at the same time with the Lord's coming, is a 
matter that is taught in various Scriptures ; for ex- 
ample, in the last part of the fourth chapter of First 
Thessalonians, and also in the last part of the twen- 
tieth chapter of Revelation. (See Rev. 20 : 11-15, 

1 Thess. 4 : 16; 1 Cor. 15 : 22, 23. Also as con- 
nected, indirectly through the Lord's coming, with 
the final judgment, Matt. 24 : 30, 31; 25 : 31-46; 

2 Thess. 1 : 7-10.) 

Another object of the Lord's coming, is to judge 
the world. " For we must all appear," says Paul, 
" before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one 
may receive the things done in his body, according 
to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad " 
(2 Cor. 5 : 10) . There is then to be a general judg- 
ment, as well as a general resurrection. 1 These two 
things go together. And that the general judg- 



1 Pre-millennialists teach that there are to be two resurrections, 
one of the righteous and the other of the unrighteous; but the 
post-millennial doctrine is that the first one of these resurrections, 
that mentioned in Rev. 20 : 5, 6, is to be understood spiritually, 



40 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

ment will take place in connection with the second 
advent, we have, as proof, any number of Scrip- 
tures. " Let both grow together " — says Jesus in 
his parable of the tares — " until the harvest ; and in 
the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather 
ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles 
to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn. 
So shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of 
man shall send forth his angels, and they shall 
gather out of his kingdom all things that offend ; and 
shall cast them into a furnace of fire. Then shall 
the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom 
of their Father" (Matt. 13 : 30, 40-43). So also: 
" The Son of man shall come in the glory of his 



and so the only or literal resurrection is what they conceive to 
be a general one, as described in verses 12-15 of the same 
chapter. A more correct interpretation of these two Scripture pas- 
sages, however — more correct because more literal — is, we believe, 
that the two resurrections mentioned or described are to be under- 
stood literally. But the first resurrection is evidently only one 
of a certain class of the saints — the martyrs and confessors — who 
" were beheaded for the witness of Jesus " or " had not worshiped 
the beast," etc. This class of saints were not only to be raised 
from the dead, but were also to enjoy the privilege of reigning 
with Christ for a thousand years. To include among these the 
whole number of the saints, as the pre-millennialists do, is cer- 
tainly doing violence to the plain teaching of Scripture. So also, 
on the other hand, to interpret the first one of these resurrec- 
tions in a spiritual sense, as is done by the post-millennialists, is 
not only doing violence to Scripture, but is, more especially, to 
prefer a figurative interpretation to a literal one, which, when a 
literal interpretation is possible, is not gjod exegesis. 

But what this literal resurrection of the martyrs and confes- 
sors, in connection with the thousand years' reign, really signifies, 
is not definitely or fully stated in Scripture; consequently that 
point must be left undetermined. 



MATTERS CLEARLY REVEALED 4 1 

Father with his angels, and then he shall reward 
every man according to his works " (Matt. 16: 27). 
Paul says, " Who (that is, the Lord Jesus Christ) 
shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing " 
(2 Tim. 4:1). Also, "Judge nothing before the 
time, until the Lord come" (1 Cor. 4:5). And 
John, near the close of his Revelation, gives us the 
words of Jesus, saying, " Behold, I come quickly ; 
and my reward is with me, to give to every man 
according as his work shall be" (22: 12). 

Two concomitant events, therefore, of our Lord's 
second advent are, first, the resurrection of the 
dead ; and second, the general judgment. These are 
purposes for the accomplishment of which it is that 
he will come. But now there is still another such 
purpose, or concomitant event, which we wish to 
consider. It is what in Scripture language is called 
" the restitution of all things." That expression, as 
used by Peter (Acts 3 : 21) and as it or expressions 
similar to it in meaning are found in the Scriptures, 
does not, as we understand, signify merely a res- 
toration to Israel of any position or privileges that 
may have been lost by that people as a nation. 
Neither does it mean altogether, or in its whole 
significance, a re-establishment of our entire race 
in Edenic privileges and condition, or in such a 
state of happiness and virtue as was that enjoyed 
and lost by Adam. But these words, in their widest 
and most particular reference, mean, we think, a 
re-instatement of the whole order of nature in its 



42 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

pristine condition. In other words, the meaning 
is, that this whole earth of ours and all its surround- 
ings, so far as these things have been affected by 
human sin, shall be cleansed from that sin, and from 
all its consequences ; so that the result will be a new 
heaven and a new earth, wherein righteousness shall 
dwell, and where God will wipe all tears from 
human eyes. 

This, it seems to us, is what Paul means by those 
great words of his in the eighth chapter of Romans : 
" For we know that the whole creation groaneth 
and travaileth in pain together until now, waiting 
for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. 
For the creature," says he, "was made subject unto 
vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who 
hath subjected the same in hope." That is, the 
whole order of nature was made subject unto sin and 
death, because of human transgression. But then, 
Paul tells us, " The creature itself also shall be de- 
livered from this bondage of corruption into the 
glorious liberty of the children of God." In other 
terms, the law of necessity and death, which for so 
long a time has been ruling over all our natural 
world because of man's sin, shall be removed; and 
then nature will be changed and glorified, and made 
in its being like unto the glorified bodies which we 
shall have after the resurrection, or as is now the 
raised and glorified body of the Saviour. This, it 
seems to us, is what Paul means by the words which 
we have mentioned ; and the idea is the same as that 



MATTERS CLEARLY REVEALED 43 

expressed elsewhere in Scripture by the words " a 
new heaven " and " a new earth." 

So also Peter speaks of the same thing, in his 
second letter. He says, " The heavens shall pass 
away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt 
with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that 
are therein shall be burned up. Nevertheless,' , says 
he, " we, according to his promise, wait for new 
heavens and a new earth" (3 : 10, 13). And 
John says that in his apocalyptic vision he " saw a 
new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven 
and the first earth were passed away." Or, as he 
has it in another verse of the same chapter, " The 
former things are passed away " (Rev. 21 : 4). 

This great renewing of things, moreover, will 
occur at the time of the Saviour's advent. Thus, 
e. g., Peter indicates, several times, in the chapter 
from which we have quoted (see ver. 4, 7, 10, 12). 

Now we come to the most difficult and obscure 
part of our subject. It is the time when our Lord 
will appear. That will, from here on, form the 
special subject of our discussion. 



Ill 

TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING 

Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the 
angels of heaven, but my Father only. Matt. 24 : 36. 

Learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet 
tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is 
nigh: so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, 
know that it is near, even at the doors. Matt. 24 : 32, 33. 

THE most difficult item connected with the whole 
subject of Christ's parousia is the one respect- 
ing the time at which that event will occur. There 
are so many different opinions obtaining with regard 
to this particular, and withal there is so much real 
obscurity covering the matter, that any attempt to 
come to definite and satisfactory conclusions here 
would seem to be almost hopeless, or even a kind 
of foolish temerity. But the topic is, after all, one 
well worthy of study ; or, at all events, it is full of 
interest, and there is even a kind of fascination 
belonging to it that is peculiar. 

Then too, as to whether the Lord's coming is to 
take place away off in the future, or whether he will 
appear at a date not distant from us — this if an- 
swered either in one way or the other, determines 
also matters of no little practical moment in our 
experience. For just as we regard the advent of 
44 



TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING 45 

Christ — far in the future or nigh at hand — in that 
way also do we order conduct ; not only our expecta- 
tions and desires, but also our prayers and efforts. 
No man, for example, is going to do much for the 
salvation of the world, and especially of the heathen, 
who believes that to-morrow, or in a very short time, 
Christ will make his appearance. And, on the other 
hand, no man who expects that the coming of the 
Saviour will not take place until at a very distant 
date, is in condition either to appreciate the grandeur 
and importance of a nearer expectation, or to pre- 
pare himself and his immediate surroundings as he 
ought for the event. A mistake, therefore, on either 
the one side or the other, is fraught with real evils ; 
and in this discussion of the time when our Lord 
will come, the practical bearing of matters must, 
with other considerations, be taken into account. 

Two Leading Views. There are, then, as we have 
intimated, really only two main or leading views 
that are, or have been, taken with reference to the 
time of Christ's advent. One of these views is that 
he will come at a very distant day, and the other is 
that the date of his appearance is near. Nigh at 
hand or away off in the future — these are the two 
poles between which the question ranges, and the 
answer is given sometimes on one side, and some- 
times on the other. To be sure, there are more than 
two views taken with respect to the particular time 
of the Saviour's advent; but yet a division among 
them may be made in the manner we have suggested. 



46 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

That is to say, there are what may be called long- 
range views, and others of a shorter range. 

Let us look at each class somewhat more particu- 
larly. The long-range views, then, however they 
may differ in other respects, yet all agree in one 
particular, viz., that the coming of Christ is, as to 
time, distant from us. And on the other hand, the 
shorter range views agree generally in locating the 
time as near. On the one side it is said, before the 
Lord comes some other events must take place, such 
as the conversion of the Jews, the gathering in 
of the fulness of the Gentiles, and possibly also a 
return of the Jews to the Holy Land and their re- 
establishment as a nation. And among other mat- 
ters that, it is affirmed, are sure to occur, is the in- 
tervention yet, before the second advent, of a long 
period called in theological language the millennium. 

On the other hand, the shorter range views gen- 
erally agree in saying: The coming of the Lord 
is nigh. Most or quite all of the prophecies have 
already been fulfilled. And as to the millennium, 
that is either located in the past or interpreted in 
some mystical or spiritual sense ; or else, as is done 
by the pre-millennialists, it is put not before, but 
after Christ's coming. The one point on which all 
these views are agreed is that the second advent 
must be regarded as near, while different interpre- 
tations are taken of the millennium. And so it is 
with the two more general classes of views: one 
looks away into a distant future for the coming 



TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING 47 

of the Lord, and the other beholds that event as 
nigh. What divides them one from the other is 
mostly the millennium, although other matters come 
in here with some determining effect. 

The Millennial Controversy. But the principal 
cause of difference between these two sets of views, 
as also the great occasion for difference of opinion 
as to the time of the Saviour's advent, is what is 
called the millennium. That period of a thousand 
years during which Christ shall reign on the earth, 
is the great bone of contention, or subject of con- 
troversy, between different parties. Take this mat- 
ter, or the customary notions respecting it, out of 
the way, and there exists no longer any very great 
cause for dissension. But just so long as the millen- 
nium, differently interpreted and located as it is, 
exists as a fully defined doctrine among men, 
so long, of course, will differences of opinion 
exist, and so long too, will the whole matter of 
Christ's second advent — respecting which, if with 
regard to anything, there should be peace among 
Christians — be the occasion not of peace, but of 
strife. Is there any way, then, of overcoming this 
difficulty? We think there is. At all events, the 
millennium can be so interpreted as that, whatever 
there is in it according to the Scripture representa- 
tion, it need not interfere with a practical determina- 
tion of the time when our Lord will come. That is 
to say, it is practicable to leave the millennium, 
either wholly or in part, out of the question. 



48 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

But before indicating any solution we may have 
of the difficulty or difficulties mentioned, it may be 
advantageous for us to observe a little more fully 
the nature of the millennium, and to notice how it 
operates in affecting the views held respecting the 
coming of Christ. As the word itself signifies, 
millennium means " a thousand years " ; and the 
theological idea attached to it is that Christ with 
his saints shall reign on the earth during that period 
of time. So far all eschatologists are agreed. 
But now whether this reign shall, on the part 
of Christ, be one of a literal personal nature, or 
whether he will rule through influences, or in a 
spiritual sense — here it is where opinions differ ; the 
old, or at least the most commonly received view 
being that this dominion is to be interpreted in a 
spiritual sense, and the other, or the pre-millennial 
notion, being that it is to be understood in a 
temporal or literal sense. 

But, however these views may differ as to the 
nature of Christ's reign, it is rather the location of 
the millennium that creates the trouble in eschato- 
logical matters, particularly so far as they relate to 
the time of our Saviour's advent. Put the millen- 
nium or any long period of time during which 
Christ is to reign on the earth, put anything of 
this kind before his coming, and, of course, you 
have removed his second advent far away to an 
indefinite period; at all events, to a period a thou- 
sand years or more still distant from us. And on 






TIME OF THE LORD S COMING 49 

the other hand, if you put this period of a thousand 
years after Christ's coming, then you find it to the 
interest of your theory, to locate the advent just as 
near as possible to the present time. 

Objections to Pre-millennialism. To both of 
these views respecting the date of our Lord's com- 
ing we object ; and in the first place, we object to the 
pre-millennial notion for the following reasons : 

i. The doctrine of a literal, personal reign of 
Christ in our world, constituted as it now is, is 
nowhere taught in the Scriptures. The kingdom of 
the Messiah which was to be set up and become uni- 
versal on the earth, and then to last forever, is ex- 
plained by Scripture itself as being not a material, 
but a spiritual kingdom. " The kingdom of God," 
says Paul, " is not meat and drink ; but righteous- 
ness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost " (Rom. 
14 : 17) . So he also says : " Flesh and blood cannot 
inherit the kingdom of God " (1 Cor. 15 : 50). And 
the Saviour adds, " The kingdom of God cometh not 
with observation; it is within you" (Luke 17:20, 
21). It is therefore something that is not material 
or temporal, but spiritual in its nature. 

2. This doctrine of Christ's personal reign on 
earth for a thousand years is only an old Jewish no- 
tion revived. Even up, as it seems, to the very day 
of Christ's ascension, the disciples, who were Jews, 
appear to have carried with them this notion of a 
material kingdom, so deeply was it imbedded in 
their nature; and Jesus had, so to speak, to rebuke 

D 



50 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

them for it. " Lord," said they, " wilt thou at this 
time restore again the kingdom to Israel ? " (Acts 
1:6). But Jesus, answering, showed them that it 
was not for them to know the times or the seasons 
which the Father had put in his own power, but by 
directing their attention to the Holy Spirit, as a 
power that was to be received by them, he thus 
taught them the spiritual nature of his kingdom. 

3. This notion of a material kingdom, and of 
Christ's reigning in it, includes also the idea of sin 
and sinners existing in the same territory with 
the kingdom — a conception that is totally repugnant 
to the whole spirit and teaching of the gospel. It 
was enough for the holy Saviour that he endured 
the contradiction of sinners once. When he comes 
the second time, he will come "without sin unto sal- 
vation " (Heb. 9 : 28). He will do no more aton- 
ing for sin after that ; but his coming will be for the 
purpose of accomplishing in his saints complete re- 
demption, and also for the purpose of punishing or 
destroying the ungodly. (See 2 Thess. 1 : 7-10; 
also Rom. 2 : 5-10.) 

Moreover, as represented in the Scriptures (Matt. 
25 : 31-46; Rev. 22 : 11), Christ's second coming 
will be the end of all mediatorial work ; but the pre- 
millennial scheme continues the work of saving 
men, all through the period of a thousand years. 
Besides it introduces, or finds in its theory the neces- 
sity of introducing, new means of grace, as though 
the present forces of redemption were insufficient 



TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING 5 1 

for accomplishing the world's salvation ! These and 
still other notions, utterly foreign to the teaching 
and spirit of the gospel, are taught by pre-millen- 
nialism. 

4. But if there were no other reason for rejecting 
that theory of Christ's second coming which locates 
it as an event before the period of years called the 
millennium, whatever may be signified by that word, 
then the fact that this pre-millennial notion wholly 
misconceives of the purposes or designs of Christ's 
parousia is, of itself, a sufficient and a decisive 
reason. According to pre-millennialism, our Lord 
will come, not, as we saw when especially noti- 
cing the objects of the advent — to raise the dead, 
judge the world, and accomplish "the restitution 
of all things " — but simply or primarily for the pur- 
pose of setting up a temporal kingdom. He will re- 
establish, so pre-millennialists say, the throne of 
David, and from Jerusalem as a center, he will rule 
even to the ends of the earth. But this idea, besides 
being Jewish and materialistic in nature, is thor- 
oughly contradictory to the Scripture teaching as 
to what are the purposes of Christ's coming. Those 
purposes, are very different from the setting up of a 
temporal or worldly kingdom. 

For these reasons, and others that might easily be 
adduced, we reject, for the most part, this pre-mil- 
lennial scheme; accepting only of its teaching, that 
the coming of our Lord must not be regarded as 
so very far away. 



5^ 



THAT BLESSED HOPE 



Then, on the other hand, as to post-millennialism, 
which locates the coming of the Saviour so dis- 
tantly from us — this theory also, it seems to us, 
cannot be fully accepted ; for the reason that it does 
not in all respects accord with Scripture teaching. 

Objection to Post-millennialism. However, this 
post-millennial view does, in our judgment, accord 
mostly with Scripture; and therefore, as a system 
of doctrine, it is much preferable to pre-millennial- 
ism. It agrees with the Bible so far as the nature of 
Messiah's kingdom is concerned, and also as to the 
form and manner, and the special purposes, of our 
Lord's coming. But when it comes to locating the 
time of the advent, here is where we object to post- 
millennialism as being in error. It is, we think, in 
error here for the special reason that, contrary to 
the Scripture representation, it interjects a long and 
more or less definite period of time yet to elapse 
before the Saviour will come. 

According to the teaching of the Bible, Christ 
may be expected at almost any time. His coming, 
no matter how long it may be delayed, should al- 
ways be regarded as near. 1 " What I say unto you, I 

i Dr. James H. Brooks, in his " Maranatha " (p. 75), says the 
proper attitude of the believing soul is to look for the Lord's 
coming as " possible every hour, and not improbable any hour " — 
to the latter of which assertions we object, as also to his view 
that Christ will probably come during the present generation. There 
are a number of events which seem to be quite clearly foretold 
in Scripture, that must take place yet before the advent; and 
surely Christ will not make his appearance before all things which 
are prophesied to occur beforehand shall have been fulfilled. Hence 
we think the pre-millennialists are wrong in saying that Christ 



TIME OF THE LORD S COMING 53 

say unto all," said the Saviour, "watch' 1 (Mark 
13 : 37) . " Watch, therefore ; for ye know not what 
hour your Lord doth come " (Matt. 24 : 42) . More- 
over, we are told that Christ will come " quickly " 
(Rev. 22:20) ; and that "the coming of the Lord 
draweth nigh " (James 5:8). Also, that " the Lord 
is at hand" (Phil. 4: 5) ; and that "the end of all 
things is at hand " (1 Peter 4:7). Hebrews says, 
" So much the more as ye see the day approaching " 
(10 : 25). These and many similar Scripture 
teachings are too clearly worded and too positive in 
their nature to be passed by, without one's gaining 
from them the idea that, according to inspiration, 
the coming of Christ should be regarded as a near 
event, and not as one remote in the future. More- 
over, the Bible makes abundant practical use of the 
doctrine. Christians are told to look for, and hasten 
unto, the coming of the day of God (2 Peter 3 : 12) . 
Also they are described as those that are " waiting 
for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ " ( 1 Cor. 
1:7). " Now we beseech you," says Paul, " by the 
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gather- 
ing together unto him" (2 Thess. 2:1); and in 
another place he promises a reward to " all them 
that love Christ's appearing" (2 Tim. 4:8). 

There is, therefore, a practical interest connected 
with our Lord's parousia; and this, as well as a 

will probably come during the present generation. His advent is 
Possible at nearly any time; but the prophecies still remaining un- 
fulfilled hardly permit the use of the word " probable " as appli- 
cable to his coming so soon, or while the present generation lives. 



54 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

regard for Scripture teaching, should be taken into 
the account in our attempts at determining the time 
of that event. But now, as we have already said, 
the post-millennial programme interjects between 
the coming of Christ and the present day a very long 
period of time, called the millennium; and it says 
that before the Saviour can come this millennium 
must all take place. In this way the advent is 
pushed far into the future, and post-millennialism 
puts itself on record as opposed to plain Scripture 
teaching, or at all events, to some of the practical 
instruction of the Bible. The Bible tells us that our 
Lord's coming should be watched for as a thing 
that is nigh; post-millennialism, with its thousand 
years or more of time necessarily interjected before 
the advent, practically destroys all, or nearly all, 
interest in the doctrine, and makes the coming of 
Christ a mater of little or no concern to our world. 
" My lord delayeth his coming," is what the " evil 
servant " said in the parable ; and because he so 
thought, he " began to smite his fellow-servants, 
and to eat and drink with the drunken," or, in other 
words, to be careless. With a thousand years or 
more of time put in yet before our Lord's return, 
it is just impossible for any one, Christian or im- 
penitent man, to be very attentively interested in it. 
Hence we say, there must be something wrong 
somewhere in this post-millennial doctrine, opposed 
as it is directly to some of the plain teachings of 
Scripture. 



TIME OF THE LORD S COMING 55 

The Millennium More Fully Considered. The 
whole difficulty is again connected with the millen- 
nium. This period of a thousand years put in before 
the Lord makes his appearance — it is this that 
creates the trouble. But is there no way of avoiding 
this interjection of a thousand years? Let us see. 
To be sure, we desire to be scriptural ; and so, turn- 
ing to the twentieth chapter of Revelation, we have 
there all that is known for certain respecting the 
millennium. This passage teaches that during a 
period of a thousand years Satan shall be bound with 
chains, and shut up in the bottomless pit, so that 
during this time he cannot go forth to deceive the 
nations ; also, that during this same period the saints, 
or at least some of them — those who " were be- 
headed for the witness of Jesus, and for the word 
of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, 
neither his image, neither had received his mark 
upon their foreheads or in their hands," — that these 
saints lived again and reigned with Christ a thou- 
sand years. But now whether this living again and 
reigning is to be regarded as taking place in heaven 
or on earth, or exactly what is to be the scene of the 
events named, the revelator does not tell us. Neither 
does he give us any indication as to what will be the 
character of that thousand years' reign, save that 
during this period Satan shall be bound, and as a 
consequence, the nations shall not be deceived by 
him. 

This is all that can be learned from the Bible, of 



56 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

a definite and positive nature, touching the millen- 
nium regarded as a period. There are many other 
facts indicated in Scripture as belonging to the 
Saviour's reign — some of them referring to his 
dominion on earth, and others to his rule in heaven, 
or in the future world. But now whether these facts 
or how many of them, can or should be assigned to 
the millennial period of Christ's reign — this is a 
question regarding which there can be, and have 
been, very different opinions held. The fault, we 
conceive, of the post-millennial view, is that it takes 
all, or nearly all these facts — and especially the 
glowing descriptions of Messiah's kingdom found in 
the Old Testament — and not only puts them to- 
gether in a period by themselves, but says that this 
period is the same as the thousand years mentioned 
in the twentieth chapter of Revelation. In other 
words, it takes all the scattered scriptural notices 
respecting the glories and other extraordinary fea- 
tures of Messiah's kingdom, and then applies them, 
without discrimination, and without any authority 
from Scripture, to a period mentioned in only one 
or two verses of the Bible, and these verses con- 
fessedly very obscure and highly figurative in their 
language! But it does not follow that, because a 
period of time is mentioned in one part of the Bible, 
therefore all the events, or any events mentioned 
elsewhere in the same book, are to be assigned to 
this period. On the contrary, the extreme likeli- 
hood is that at least a large number of these events 



TIME OF THE LORD S COMING 57 

belong to some other period, or will take place 
outside of that particular one. So we say re- 
garding the millennium, it does not follow that be- 
cause there are extraordinary events and very great 
glories mentioned here and there in the Scriptures 
as belonging to Messiah's kingdom, that therefore 
they all belong to the millennial period of that king- 
dom. 1 On the contrary, there are at least some of 
these events and glories which are best understood 
as belonging to a period which comes after, and not 
before, Christ's second advent — that is to say, to 
the eternal kingdom of the Messiah. So it is with 
the everlasting continuance of Messiah's empire, 
and also with the universal reign of peace, and the 

1 Scholars have noticed some four differences between the mil- 
lennium as described in Rev. 20 and the general picture of the 
Messianic era as given especially by the Old Testament prophets. 
First, that era was to last forever; whereas the millennium is 
described as enduring only for a thousand years. Second, the 
Messianic age was to be characterized by universal holiness, right- 
eousness, and peace; but the binding of Satan, as mentioned in 
Rev. 20, may signify only a partial restraint put upon the power of 
evil in our world; and some have thought that this restraint is 
put only upon Satan's persecuting power, because after the mil- 
lennium he is represented as stirring up the nations, by his de- 
ceptions, to persecuting the church. Third, according to the pro- 
phetic descriptions of Messiah's reign, he was to subdue all na- 
tions under him. He should reign from the river to the ends of 
the earth, and the nation or people that would not serve him should 
perish; but during the millennial period wicked nations, or peoples, 
as the progenitors of those who were stirred up to rebellion and 
persecution, seem to have existed, perhaps everywhere in the world, 
alongside of the saints. Lastly, an important difference is that after 
the thousand years' reign of the martyr saints with Christ, a great 
rebellion and persecution breaks out against the church, which is 
a thing utterly unknown to the prophets, as connected with 
Messiah's empire. 



58 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

all-pervasive righteousness, to be accomplished in 
the world by it. Moreover, some of the Messianic 
events are surely being accomplished now in the 
world, and others will continue right on in the 
regular way to be accomplished, so that although we 
may look for largely increased victory given to the 
church, and very great glory to be experienced by 
Christianity in its latter-day rule, yet the writer does 
not find that any period of a thousand years' glori- 
ous reign of the Saviour on earth, to come in yet 
before his second advent, is anywhere taught defi- 
nitely in the Scriptures, or at all events, so taught 
as that some other interpretation of the matter can- 
not to be legitimately taken. 1 

Solution of the Difficulties. For the reason above 
given, as well as for perhaps the stronger one that 
the practical representation of the Scriptures de- 



1 Doctor Wordsworth, with Augustine and others in ancient times, 
holds that the millennium began with Christ's first advent. Grotius 
advocated the notion of its commencing with Constantine's acces- 
sion to power in the Roman empire. So also, in more recent 
times, Bush, Lord Napier, Forbes, Prof. C. A. Briggs, Dr. I. 
P. Warren and others. Over Constantine's palace-gate there was a 
picture of the emperor holding above his head the labarutn, 
or banner of the cross; and underneath his feet Satan was rep- 
resented as a serpent, pierced with arrows and falling into the 
abyss; this being intended to convey the idea that Constantine's 
elevation to power and the consequent ceasing of heathen perse- 
cution, was the overthrow of the great Adversary, which notion 
afterward was understood as denoting also a beginning of the 
millennium. 

The Reformers, in general, did not believe in any millennium; 
considering the church to be the proper kingdom of God on earth, 
and the whole matter of the thousand years to be one of those 
" opiniones Judaicae " which have often appeared in Christian history. 






TIME OF THE LORD S COMING 59 

mands that Christ's second advent be regarded as 
nigh, and not as an occurrence away off in the fu- 
ture, we propose to omit, from our computation of 
the time when the Lord will come, at least so much 
of the millennium as necessitates yet the interven- 
tion of a thousand years, or of any similarly long 
period of time, before the scriptural prerequisites 
to the advent shall have taken place. In our view, 
then, the millennium is not a scriptural prerequis- 
ite to the Lord's coming ; or at all events, it is not a 
prerequisite so clearly taught that, where it comes 
into conflict with the practical representation of 
Scripture, that the second advent should always be 
regarded by the church as near, it ought not to give 
way before this more clearly, and in the Bible far 
more generally taught practical doctrine. 1 Leav- 
ing, therefore, the millennium, or at least such part 
of it as requires yet before Christ comes the inter- 

1 In all Jesus' utterances he says not a word about his reign- 
ing for a thousand years, either literally or spiritually, in our 
world. But he teaches positively that wjen his gospel shall have 
been " preached unto all nations for a witness," then " the end " — 
that is, a complete end of all earthly history — will come. So also, 
in none of the apostolic letters, nor indeed anywhere in the Bible, 
except in Rev. 20, is there any mention made of a millennium. 
That idea of a thousand years' reign by the Messiah seems to 
have originated in some of the Jewish apocalypses composed be- 
fore the time of Christ; which idea John adopted in his Revela- 
tion. But he sheared it of its peculiarly Jewish and sensuous 
features, made it more spiritual in character, and limited its 
enjoyment especially to certain classes of the saints — those who were 
beheaded for the witness of Jesus, etc. 

Semisch, in the Schaff-Herzog encyclopedia, pronounces the mil- 
lennium, as depicted in Rev. 20, " a hieroglyph whose meaning 
has not yet been satisfactorily solved." 



60 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

vention of any long period of time — leaving all that 
out of the computation, we are able, the writer 
thinks, from other data furnished by Scripture, to 
make some estimate, more or less definite, of the 
time when the Lord may be expected. 

Time Estimates. That is to say, we can approxi- 
mate the time, not in absolute figures, but in figures 
which may be regarded as correct within certain 
limits. It is in this matter a good deal as it was with 
the estimate made by a celebrated humorist with re- 
gard to the teachings of phrenology. When asked, 
at one time, whether he believed in phrenology, he 
replied : " Yes, I believe in it to some extent. I 
believe in it so far as the great continents of the 
head are concerned. And I am willing also to ac- 
cept its teachings with regard to the cranial political 
divisions, perhaps even respecting the states and 
counties. But," said he, " when you come, with 
such teachings, down to the townships and school 
districts, then I shall have to be excused." 

Somehow so it is with the matter under con- 
sideration. It is not very difficult to estimate in 
a general way about how far off or how near at 
hand the Lord's coming may be yet; but when any 
exact determination of the time is attempted, then 
comes even an impossible task. To make another 
comparison, this determination of the time of the 
Saviour's coming is much like those computations 
which astronomers make with regard to the distance 
of the fixed stars from our earth, or the return of 



TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING 6 1 

some of the comets in their orbits — matters which 
cannot be determined exactly, but only in a general 
or approximative way. 

" When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with 
armies," said the Saviour, " then know that the 
desolation thereof is nigh " (Luke 21 : 20). So he 
also said : " Learn a parable of the fig tree, when 
his branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves, ye 
know that summer is nigh : so likewise ye, when ye 
shall see all these things " — matters of which he had 
previously spoken — then " know that it is near, even 
at the doors " (Matt. 24 : 32, 33) . He was speaking 
of his own second coming, togetner with the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem ; and the signs he gives respecting 
both those events, are the encompassing of a city 
with armies and the unfolding of the leaves on a 
tree. By such events or signs it could be told how 
near, or far off, were the great events in human his- 
tory that were prophesied. So, more particularly 
regarding the event of our Lord's second coming, 
we understand it to be the Saviour's teaching that 
here something positive can be known with regard 
to even the time or date. We can at all events tell, 
from the signs given us in the Bible, whether that 
greatest of all events yet awaiting the history of our 
world is near at hand or away off in the future. 



IV 

TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING — THE SUBJECT 
CONTINUED 

When shall these things be? And what shall be the 
sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? Matt. 
24:3. 

FIE Millennium Again. It was remarked in 
our last chapter that, as the writer views the 
millennium, it is not a scriptural prerequisite to our 
Lord's second advent. By this observation it was 
intended to say two things: first, that nowhere in 
the Bible is it taught definitely, and with such clear- 
ness as not to leave room for difference of opinion, 
that before Christ comes the second time he must 
reign (spiritually, of course) upon our earth for a 
thousand years ; and secondly, that the word millen- 
nium as used in this connection means particularly 
a long period of such exceeding religious prosperity, 
or of such triumph and glory to the gospel as that 
it cannot properly be conceived of as having yet 
commenced. This double view of the matter is the 
one taken by Drs. Charles Hodge, Albert Barnes, 
Daniel Whitby, Rev. David Brown, and other like 
eminent authorities on Christian eschatology. 
Moreover, it is the common post-millennial notion. 
But that this idea of the millennium must be 
62 



TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING 63 

incorrect, or that in some respect post-millennialism 
needs to be considerably modified, is evident from 
the fact already insisted on in this treatise, that ac- 
cording to the biblical representation Christ's sec- 
ond advent should be regarded as nigh, and not as 
distant from any Christian age. This practical 
representation of the Bible, we say, makes it im- 
perative that no period of one thousand years shall, 
in one's conception of the time of the Lord's parou- 
sia, come in between that date and the time in which 
the person lives. Moreover, in order to preserve to 
our idea of the future glories of Christianity, every- 
thing that in the Scriptures is really prophesied as 
such, it is not necessary to regard all these glories as 
belonging to a millennial period, to come in either 
before or after Christ's advent, nor to regard these 
glories as all of so extraordinary a character that, 
at least some of the number may not be conceived of 
as having already begun, or even as being now mat- 
ters of the past. For these two reasons, therefore, 
we propose, if it is necessary to accept any millen- 
nium, to so modify the old post-millennial notion 
that at least a part of the period, and perhaps a 
good part, may be considered as having already 
elapsed. We can therefore regard ourselves still 
as believers in the millennium, even though we do 
not assent to all that post-millennialism teaches. 
Furthermore, we wish to say yet, before closing 
this part of our examination, that inasmuch as the 
millenary reign of Christ with his saints (or rather 



64 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

of the saints with Christ — that is the way the words 
stand in Rev. 20 14) is a matter spoken of only in 
a single passage of Scripture — and that, as most 
scholars confess, a highly figurative and very ob- 
scure pasage — it may not be well to build up, over- 
confidently, either post or pre millenary theories 
upon it. Surely, one would think, if a great doc- 
trine, affecting many other Christian teachings and 
interests, is to be grounded only on one Scripture 
text, that text ought to be at least unmistakably 
clear, to say nothing of its being in harmony with 
others. But such is not the case with this passage in 
the twentieth chapter of Revelation. It is both an 
obscure text, and one, so far as the period of time 
mentioned in it is concerned, not supported by any 
other text of Scripture. We shall, then, for the 
various reasons indicated, dismiss this passage, or 
what is virtually the same thing, the doctrine of the 
millennium, very largely from our consideration; 
believing, that in attempts generally at determining 
the time of the Lord's coming, this doctrine has fig- 
ured too extensively, or widely out of proportion to 
its slight mention in the Bible. 

Looking, then, at the time of the Saviour's advent 
rather in the light of other data, than of the millen- 
nium, we see in these data no sufficient reason for 
locating that time so very far in the future. On the 
contrary, in these data we think we see some very 
good reasons for regarding the time rather as some- 
what nigh. But before giving our final determina- 



TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING 6$ 

tions, let us examine, at least briefly, the special 
facts, or the events and figures which are furnished 
in the Bible as bearing upon a solution of the 
problem before us. 

Time-determining Facts. The first of these time- 
determining data that we will notice is one of rather 
a general nature. It is what may be called the 
progress of fulfilled prophecy. As was the case with 
the prophecies appertaining to the first advent of 
our Saviour, so it is with these also which relate to 
his coming the second time, there is, and has been 
connected with them a gradual fulfilment. With- 
out here attempting to catalogue, or to mention in 
any great number, these prophecies, it may be said 
that such predictions, for example, as the destruction 
of Jerusalem ; the triumph and success of the gospel 
in heathen lands, as well as among the Jews; the 
downfall of the Roman empire; the rise of the 
papacy; the irruption into Europe and other Chris- 
tian countries of the Saracens, and later of the 
Turks, these and other like announcements made 
in the Bible of events which would come to pass 
before the end of the world, these have already oc- 
curred. And so we have, in the history of fulfilled 
prophecy, not only a pledge of the fulfilment of 
other predictions recorded in Scripture, but also an 
exhibition of the gradual manner in which Bible 
prophecy has already come to pass. 

Just where in the general programme of events 
predicted to occur before our Lord's coming human 

E 



66 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

history is now, it would be difficult, or perhaps im- 
possible, to determine. Some students in eschatol- 
ogy think they can locate our particular time. It is, 
they tell us, the period described in Revelation 
( 1 1 : 14) by the word " quickly," in the interim 
between the sounding of the sixth and the seventh 
trumpet. Six of the trumpets, they say, have already 
sounded, and six of the seals have been opened, and 
six of the vials poured out; and so there only re- 
mains the seventh one of these three symbolic acts to 
take place, and then, of course, comes the end. 1 
But whether this is so or not, or whatever one of 
the prophecies is at present being fulfilled, certain 
it is that in the fulfilment of prophecy there is 
progress, and certain also that we are now so much 
nearer the time when the Saviour will come, as 
there have been from the beginning prophecies 
wrought into history. 

In the material heavens there is evidence that our 
whole solar system is moving in a northerly direc- 
tion. The evidence is the constant increase of the 
spaces between the stars in that portion of the 
heavens, or particularly in the constellation Her- 
cules, a fact that for a considerable time has been 

1 This general reckoning is in accordance with what is known 
as the synchronous-historical theory of interpreting the book of 
Revelation. We prefer the continuous-historical theory as being 
more natural. Or rather we prefer both the preterist theory and 
the continuous-historical; the one furnishing the historical setting 
of the book and in part a key to its interpretation, and the other 
furnishing a sufficiently extensive and varied series of facts to cover 
the different prophetic symbols. 



TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING 6? 

well known in astronomical circles. Now from this 
circumstance it is argued, not that there is an abso- 
lute separating of the stars, but, as with the masts 
of a number of vessels lying in a harbor to a 
person coming in from the sea, so those stars 
appear, the nearer we get to them, to separate more 
and more, one from another. This fact is sufficient 
to prove that our entire solar system is moving in 
the direction indicated ; and not only that, but mov- 
ing also in a mighty orbit around some central point 
in the depth of the universe. But where we are at 
present in this great revolution, or just how near 
to the stars mentioned, it would be difficult, yes, im- 
possible, to determine ; we only know, from the evi- 
dences at hand, that for the present we are moving 
toward the constellation Hercules. So also, from the 
evidence given us in the spiritual heavens, we know 
that we are moving toward that object of great de- 
sire in the church, the " glorious appearing " of 
our Lord. We know moreover, from the same evi- 
dence, that we are nearer now, ever so much nearer, 
that event, than we were when the first one of the 
prophecies respecting his coming began to be ful- 
filled. 

PROPHETIC NUMBERS 

Line of Jewish Tradition 
6000 years, less 4004 b. c, give a. d. 1996 

Times of the Gentiles 
2520 years, less 721 b. c, give a. d. 1799 

(i ^gg .< ( < t, I93 2 



68 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

The 2joo Days of Daniel 

2300 years, less 457 b. a, give A. d. 1843 
425 " «• ■' 1875 

Time of the Papal Supremacy 

1260 years, added to A. d. 533, make a. d. 1793 
" «« «« " «« 606, •« " 1866 

.« ,, M «« «« 752, " " 2012 

,< (4 II ,« IQ73> 44 4. 2333 

The above table is intended to represent the prin- 
cipal lines of numbers that different persons have 
discovered — or at least they have so thought — in the 
Bible, as having a bearing upon the time when 
Christ's epiphany will occur. There are four such 
lines, as we have given them; and of the whole 
table we wish to say, that our responsibility extends 
only to the limit of its being a correct representation 
of the ideas of others. Whatever value is to be at- 
tached to the results of the calculations made, or 
even to the correctness of the data assumed upon 
which such calculations are based, we will not at- 
tempt to determine; but we simply give the whole 
table, with its data and results, for what it is worth. 

As said, there are four lines of these prophetic 
numbers. The first one is, or may be, called the 

Line of Jewish Tradition. Not much importance 
is to be attached to it, because it rests mostly upon 
mere Jewish speculation, though it has some basis 
also in analogy. The whole period of time here as- 
sumed is six thousand years. That is to say, accord- 
ing to this line there are six thousand years in the 



TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING 69 

entire history of the world, and this period of time is 
arrived at by analogical reasoning. There were — 
so the argument goes — six days of creation, and 
then after these days came a seventh day, which 
was the Lord's Sabbath ; and therefore, since a thou- 
sand years are in the sight of the Lord as one day 
(Ps. 90: 4), the six days of creation may stand for 
six thousand years in the secular history of the 
world, and then after these will come the eternal 
Sabbath, or the end of the world. The same result 
is reached by a different method of calculating. 
It is that, as the rabbis said, there were two thou- 
sand years before the law, and two thousand years 
of Israelitish history under the law, so there would 
be also two thousand years' reign by the Messiah, 
and then would come the end. Some interpreters 
have thought that the words in the fourth chapter of 
the Epistle to the Hebrews — " there remaineth there- 
fore a rest to the people of God " (that is, a Sabbath 
rest, as the original word means, when properly 
translated; and it is so rendered in the new ver- 
sion) — that these words contain a reference to the 
Jewish notion of an eternal Sabbath following a 
period of secular history; and therefore that the 
idea we are considering derives from these words 
some scriptural support. But be this as it may; 
the six thousand years, which we will take then 
as the entire period for the history of our world, 
this, less the four thousand and four years which, 
according to the received chronology passed before 



JO THAT BLESSED HOPE 

the coming of Christ, fixes the year a. d. 1996, for 
the ending of all things earthly, or in more Christian 
expression, for the advent of Christ. 

Of all the prophetic lines in our table, this we 
think to be the least worthy of credit; resting, as 
it does, principally upon Jewish tradition or 
speculation. 

Times of the Gentiles. Another of these lines, 
and one that we think is at least somewhat more 
important, is one that has for its period of time 
two thousand five hundred and twenty years. 
This line is indicated in the Scriptures by the 
words, " Times of the Gentiles." It is the 
period during which God has punished, and will 
continue to punish the Jews because of their sins. 
In the twenty-sixth chapter of Leviticus and the 
eighteenth verse, it says : " If ye will not yet for all 
this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven 
times more for your sins." That is to say, God will 
punish the Israelites for their sins seven times not 
merely in the sense of succession, nor of making 
the chastisement perfect, but rather in the sense 
that the punishment would last for a long period, 
or during a certain number of years. The word 
time, as used in Bible prophecy stands, we are told, 
for a year. At all events, it often does so, and con- 
sequently the words seven times, as used in the pas- 
sage of Leviticus, mean really seven years. Not 
only that, but according to the well-known theory 
of having a day stand for a year, these seven years 



TIME OF THE LORDS COMING 7 1 

would mean seven years of days, or seven years of 
years, which would be three hundred and sixty 
(the number of days in a Jewish year) multiplied 
by seven, or two thousand five hundred and twenty 
years. This is the period of time during which the 
Jews should suffer by having the Gentiles triumph 
over them. And now, if we date their punishment 
from the first captivity, or the time when the ten 
tribes were carried away by Shalmaneser, which 
was the year 721 b. a, we have, by subtracting this 
last date from the two thousand five hundred and 
twenty years, the year A. d. 1799, as the time when 
this punishment coming from the Gentiles should 
end. Consequently, if that reckoning is correct, the 
punishment has already passed. But now if, in- 
stead of 721, we take the year 588 b. g, when the 
tribe of Judah was despoiled and carried away to 
Babylon — if we take this latter date as the one to 
be subtracted from the two thousand five hundred 
and twenty years, then we get the year a. d. 1932 
as the time for the cessation of the penalty threat- 
ened. Then too, the second coming of the Saviour, 
which, according to the theory we are considering, 
is an event intimately connected with the ending of 
this Gentile domination, will occur at about the same 
date, or the year 1932. 

The Two Thousand Three Hundred Days of Dan- 
iel. The third line, as given in our table, represents 
a period of two thousand three hundred years. This 
is a period that is derived from words found in 



J2 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

Daniel. In the eighth chapter of his prophecies, the 
thirteenth verse, one saint is represented as speaking 
to another saint, and asking the question : " How 
long shall be the vision of the daily sacrifice, and 
the transgression of desolation, to give both the 
sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?" 
Then in the next verse the answer is given : " Unto 
two thousand and three hundred days ; then shall the 
sanctuary be cleansed." But these two thousand 
three hundred days mean not simply that period 
of time literally considered; but, according to the 
theory of regarding a day as standing for a year, 
which we noticed under our last heading, they mean 
two thousand three hundred years. This two 
thousand three hundred years is, therefore, the 
period of time at the expiration of which the Jew- 
ish sanctuary should be cleansed, and this cleansing 
undoubtedly signifies a delivering of the Jewish re- 
ligion, and perhaps also of Jerusalem, and even of 
the temple area, from the defilements which have 
been brought upon these holy places and worship in 
consequence of long Gentile, and especially Moham- 
medan, occupancy and dominion. At all events, at 
the end of the two thousand three hundred 
days, or years, there is to take place in connection 
with the Jewish sanctuary, whatever this word may 
mean, a cleansing experience that will be important ; 
and when that has occurred, or in connection with 
the cleansing itself, it is expected that the Lord will 
appear. 



TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING 73 

But now, in order to know just when the two 
thousand three hundred years will terminate, 
it is necessary also to know from what point in 
time we can date their beginning. To find out 
that, we have to look into the next chapter of Daniel. 
There, in the twenty-fourth verse, it is said that 
seventy weeks are determined upon the Jewish peo- 
ple, and upon the holy city, to finish the transgres- 
sion, etc.; and it is believed that this vision is only 
a part of the longer one of two thousand three hun- 
dred days. If that is so, then in the next verse 
there is furnished a date from which both visions 
may start. It is there stated that " from the going 
forth of the commandment to restore and to build 
Jerusalem, unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be 
seven weeks, and three score and two weeks " ; and 
now, if we take the year 457 b. c. as the date when 
the last commandment to rebuild Jerusalem was 
issued, then, by subtracting this period from the 
two thousand three hundred years, we get, as 
the time when the sanctuary would be cleansed, 
the year of our Lord 1843. This was the date, as 
will be remembered, that was fixed upon by Mr. 
Miller and those who believed like him, for the end 
of the world ; and the course of reasoning they fol- 
lowed was much the same as that above given. 
But some there are who tell us that Mr. Miller failed 
in his theory, because he made the seventy weeks 
of Daniel end with the crucifixion; he should have 
continued them until the destruction of Jerusalem. 



74 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

So taking another date, the year 425 b. c. — the 
process of arriving at which we need not here indi- 
cate — as the starting-point for our period of two 
thousand three hundred years, we find this 
period exhausted in the year 1875 ; and this also has 
been one of the dates around which expectations 
of the Lord's immediate or speedy coming have cir- 
culated, and upon which, moreover, they have been 
wrecked. Other dates of a similar character, based 
upon Daniel's two thousand three hundred days, 
have been selected by different parties; such, for 
example, as the years 1868 and 1880. 

Time of the Papal Supremacy. But there is still 
one other line of these prophetic numbers, perhaps 
the most important one in the table. 

It is a line that defines the time of the papal 
dominion. Here the period of years taken is one 
thousand two hundred and sixty. They represent 
the whole time during which the papacy as a ruling 
power is to continue in our world. In some of the 
last chapters of Revelation (13:5; 12 : 6, 14 ; 11:2, 
3), as also in the book of Daniel (7:25; 12: 
7), this period is represented under a variety of 
terms, such as " a time, and times, and half a time," 
" forty and two months," " a thousand two hun- 
dred and threescore days," and not only during 
this period will the papacy continue in power, but 
God's two witnesses will prophesy clothed in sack- 
cloth, and other important events will occur. But 
at the end of these one thousand two hundred and 



TIME OF THE LORDS COMING 75 

sixty years Christ will come. So at least it would 
seem from the prophecy of his destroying Anti- 
christ — which is the same thing, many think, as the 
papacy — by the brightness of his coming. Conse- 
quently, if we take, as the starting-point of the 
papacy, the year 533, when Justinian by public de- 
cree constituted the Roman bishop head over all the 
churches, we get, by adding to this date the one 
thousand two hundred and sixty years of the papal 
continuance, the year 1793 as the time when that 
power will end. Some think that then the papacy 
did virtually terminate as a worldly power. But if 
we take the year 606, when Phoeas granted about 
the same privileges as before had been granted by 
Justinian to the Roman bishop — if we take this date 
as the point from which we shall start the papacy in 
history, then, by adding the one thousand two hun- 
dred and sixty years, we have, as the date of the 
papal downfall, the year 1866. Or if we choose, we 
may select the year 752 as the date of the rise of 
the Roman supremacy, this being the year during 
which Pepin conferred upon the pope his first tem- 
poral estate ; then we get the year 2012 as the ending 
period. Of if we select yet the year 1073, when the 
greatest of all the popes, Hildebrand (or Gregory 
VII.), came into power; selecting this as the his- 
torical starting-point of the papacy, we get, as the 
date when that institution will, according to proph- 
ecy, become extinct, the year 2333. 

Value of These Prophecies. Now, looking over 



j6 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

these prophetic numbers, arranged as we have seen 
them into lines, we are tempted to ask the ques- 
tion: What is their value? To be sure, with the 
whole number of eschatologists, or with many of 
the more sober-minded among them, this value 
would not be esteemed great. And yet there are, 
and perhaps have been in all the ages of Christian 
eschatological inquiry, persons standing high in 
point of biblical knowledge, as also of good common 
sense, who have put considerable confidence in just 
such numbers — giving them, of course, their own 
interpretation, which sometimes has been like ours 
in the table, and sometimes very different. As for 
ourself, we have already said that, in this connec- 
tion, our responsibility ceases with a correct repre- 
sentation of the opinions of others. 

There are, however, two or three points connected 
with the results of this table to which we wish to call 
special attention. One of them is, that all the dates 
in the last line (that is, the line as running up and 
down) are very nearly equal; showing that from, 
or with, whatever prophetic number we start, the 
result is about the same. So also another item of 
at least some little interest, is that the average date 
in each of the four sets is about equal to that in each 
of the others ; and the average date of them all, 
being about the year 1900, is a time that has only 
recently passed. 

One other thing to which we wish to call atten- 
tion is that it is especially such dates as the year 



TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING 77 

1843, tne y ear J ^75' *793 anc * *799> ^ at nave been 
in these later times the particular rallying points for 
the parties or movements which have obtained in 
the interest of Christ's speedy coming. Moreover, 
it is these dates, or others like them perhaps, 
though not so definite and fixed, which generally 
furnish particular inspiration to the great eschato- 
logical controversies. They are therefore of interest 
to us, if for no other reason, than because they have 
more or less profoundly, and to a greater or less 
extent, interested others. 



Y 

TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING — THE SUBJECT 
CONTINUED 

And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, 
and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, 
with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's 
hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those 
things which are coming on the earth. Luke 21 : 25, 26. , 

FROM what has been already said, it is doubtless 
understood by the reader that we place little 
confidence in any time-calculations based upon what 
are called the prophetic numbers of the Bible. Yet 
unquestionably there are such numbers; and what- 
ever value belongs to them certainly ought to be 
allowed, whether the computations which we have 
given are right, or whether some others would be 
more nearly correct. In any case, allowing all that 
we can for the worth of these calculations, there are 
still other data far more determinative, or at all 
events, far more important, bearing upon the time 
of our Lord's appearing. 

These other data are certain events prophesied in 
the Scriptures to take place before Christ comes. 
But prior to examining these, let us give a hasty 
glance at some other matters which are in their 
character somewhat like the prophetic numbers, 
78 



TIME OF THE LORD S COMING 79 

perhaps, though an advance upon them in the way 
of time-determining or chronological value. 

Symbolical Beasts. What we allude to are the 
" Symbolical Beasts " and other objects, animate or 
inanimate, which are mentioned in the Old Testa- 
ment or the New, or in both, as having a connection 
with the Lord's epiphany, or rather as matters 
which must go before that event. 

There are mentioned especially in the Old Testa- 
ment the " four beasts " and the " little horn " of 
Daniel's prophecy ; also " the ram " and " the he 
goat " with four horns, out of one of which there 
came another " little horn " — this also in Daniel. 
And, besides, there is also Daniel's great metallic 
image, representing the four successive world 
monarchies; and then the little stone cut out of the 
mountain without hands, which smote the image, 
destroying it, and becoming itself a great mountain, 
thus filled the whole earth — this representing the 
kingdom which the God of heaven would set up. 
All these peculiar objects undoubtedly have some 
connection with the Lord's advent, signifying as they 
do, under an enigmatical form, events and institu- 
tions which must exist in the general history of the 
world. Moreover, these symbolical objects have, 
each one of them, their own special teaching with 
reference to the subject under consideration, that is, 
the coming of Christ. So, for instance, it is with 
the little stone cut out of the mountain without 
hands, and filling the whole earth; this represents 



80 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

very strikingly not only the littleness of Christianity 
at the beginning, but also the greatness of its influ- 
ence before its work in our world is done, that is, 
before the Saviour comes. And so also the little 
horn that came up among the ten others on the head 
of the fourth beast, and had in it " eyes like the eyes 
of a man, and a mouth speaking great things " — 
this may be conceived of as representing the papacy, 
or Antichrist; and inasmuch as according to the 
symbolical teaching this horn was destroyed and 
consumed away after " a time, times, and the divid- 
ing of time," we have here perhaps even a matter of 
chronology, by which something may be determined 
as to the date we are seeking. 

So too, it is with each and all of those many sym- 
bols which are found in John's Revelation; they 
have connected with them each its own peculiar 
teaching respecting the advent of our Lord. " The 
great red dragon" (chap. 12), for example, is, as 
many scholars understand, a symbol of persecuting 
paganism, or of the Roman government as a de- 
stroyer of the church ; the time for the existence of 
which power, however, was limited, since " there 
was war in heaven " — Michael and his angels fight- 
ing against the dragon and his angels ; the result of 
which engagement was that the dragon with his 
angels, or the Roman dominion, was cast out, that is, 
out of the political heaven, and after that the per- 
secution was continued in a different form. From 
this symbol, therefore, we learn not only of the 



TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING 8 1 

existence and cruel persecuting character of the 
Roman empire, but also something as to the time 
and manner of its end. When it did come to ex- 
tinction, its power would be merged into another 
dominion very much like itself in persecuting spirit 
and act. This would be, as is understood, the pa- 
pacy, which is further represented for us in the two 
symbols which are next given in this same book of 
Revelation (chap. 13), namely, the beast which rose 
up out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns, 
and crowns upon the horns; although this would 
seem to be a combination of the papacy and the dif- 
ferent governments into which the Roman empire 
was divided. And then after this beast there was 
another, perhaps more distinctively representing the 
papacy, that is, the two-horned beast, one of the 
horns standing for the papacy's temporal power, and 
the other for its power of a spiritual nature. These 
two dominions it is — that is, the papacy in its dis- 
tinctive form, and the papacy as connected with the 
ten kingdoms into which the Roman government 
was divided — that, as many think, are symbolized 
for us by the two animal forms which we have just 
noticed. Moreover, we are told that the time dur- 
ing which one of these beasts was to have power, if 
not both of them, was " forty and two months," 
giving us thus a time-indication which may have 
some bearing upon the date of our Lord's return. 
Besides these, there is still the " scarlet woman " 
riding a beast having seven heads and ten horns; 

F 



2>2 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

this symbol, perhaps, again showing the union of 
the papacy as a seductive power with the kingdoms 
of the world. And the end of all is that they are 
finally destroyed; this event taking place, it would 
seem, only directly before the coming of Christ, or 
" the marriage supper of the Lamb " ( 19 : 2- 
9). Thus again we have a time-indication that is, 
perhaps, of advantage to us in our problem of the 
date when the second advent will occur. 

The Seals, Trumpets, and Vials. Perhaps, though, 
of all these apocalyptic symbols the most significant 
are the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the 
seven vials. Whatever interpretation may be given 
to these three chains of prophecy, they certainly 
seem to span the entire distance between the time of 
the Apostle John and the second coming of Christ. 
Moreover, in our view these chains are best under- 
stood as representing a continuous history of the 
church in conflict with the great world-powers 
around it — this history, indeed, sometimes seeming 
to have great interruptions, and even to recede in its 
course, but still ever moving forward, like a mighty 
river, and bearing all opposition before it, until 
finally it ends in complete triumph with the advent 
of Christ. Or if we would divide this history into 
periods, then it might be said that the first period — 
the one represented by the seals — began with the 
days of the Revelator John and continued until the 
downfall of pagan Rome, or the conversion of Con- 
stantine the Great. And the second period — the 



TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING $3 

one represented by the trumpets — beginning with 
the Christian dark ages, continued on until the 
opening of the Protestant Reformation. And, ac- 
cording to the same method of interpretation, the 
last period in church history — the one represented 
by the vials, or bowls — is the period now going for- 
ward, or the one which began with the Protestant 
Reformation and will be continued until the actual 
parousia of our Lord. 

This, in brief, would seem to be perhaps the best 
interpretation that can be given of that long line of 
prophetic symbols, in their application to the actual 
history of our world ; and what is to us of especial 
interest, in connection with the problem of the time 
when Christ will come, is the fact that the whole 
series of symbols ends, as we have said, with the 
second advent. Indeed, there seem to be no less than 
three or four, or perhaps even five, different endings 
of the world prophesied in the Apocalypse of St. 
John (see 6 : 12-17; ll : I 5" ][ 8; 14 : 14-19; 16 : 
17-21 ; 20 : 11-15) ; but these terminations can, we 
think, be most preperly understood as indicating 
not, all of them, the final coming of Christ, but only 
his coming in such events as would virtually do away 
with a previous stage of history, and cause a new 
one to be ushered in. However, these decided 
breaks in the historic course of our world must be 
regarded as prophetic of that greatest of all inter- 
ruptions which will come to pass in connection 
with the Lord's descent from heaven, when as is 



84 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

prophesied, a wholly new order of things will be 
established. 

From these prophetic symbols, therefore — the 
seals, trumpets, and vials — we get what seem to be 
important data for determining the time of our 
Lord's parousia, especially since all those chains of 
prophecy end with the final coming of Christ. More- 
over, since each of the chains is divided into seven 
different parts, each of these parts must, of course, 
represent a special period in human history; and 
therefore if we can tell just the symbol, or sub- 
section of the general prophecy, under which we 
are now living, then we shall be able also to tell 
something about the date of our Lord's coming. 
Suppose, e. g., we say, with the pre-millennialists, 
that we are now living under one of the last symbols 
in the last chain of apocalyptic prophecy, then, of 
course, the second advent must be regarded as very 
near. But suppose, with a class of interpreters 
called the Futurists, we understand that much the 
larger portion of John's prophecy refers to matters 
which are still to take place, then the section of this 
symbolism under which we are living must be re- 
garded as proportionally farther from the end. 
For the determination therefore, from these data, of 
any precise time for our Lord's return, is a matter 
respecting the practicability, as well as the results 
of which there is, and always has been much differ- 
ence of opinion. If from these data the time of the 
advent is to be determined, it will be only with a 



TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING 85 

greater or less degree of uncertainty. Hence, after 
all, it must be admitted that it is only a kind of con- 
jecture we get from these three chains of symbols ; 
and so also with respect to all the other symbolical 
objects which have come under our consideration. 

Matters More Specially Determinative. But if 
from all the matters thus far noticed we obtain no 
very reliable and satisfactory conclusion as to the 
time we are seeking, there are still other data, which 
will yield more definite, and consequently better re- 
sults. These data are such events as are clearly 
prophesied in the Bible to take place yet before, or 
in connection with, our Lord's coming. In the 
twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, Jesus gives us 
what perhaps may be called a complete list of all 
such matters. We are there told that before the end 
of the world and Christ's appearing there will be 
(partly also taking place in connection with the 
destruction of Jerusalem) wars and rumors of 
wars; nation shall rise against nation, and king- 
dom against kingdom, and there shall be famines, 
and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places. 
Also the sun shall be darkened, and the moon 
will not give her light, the stars shall fall from 
heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be shaken; 
false Christs will appear, and the love of many will, 
because of persecution and of abounding iniquity, 
wax cold, and there will be great tribulation. More- 
over, what is perhaps the best, because it is the most 
determinative, of all these signs, is that the " gospel 



86 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for 
a witness unto all nations; and then shall the 

END COME." 

There are, to be sure, other phenomena or events, 
predicted in various Scriptures, which must take 
place prior to the coming of Christ; such, e. g., as 
the conversion of the Jews, and perhaps their return 
to Palestine ; the revelation of the " man of sin," or 
" Antichrist " ; an increase of knowledge, and a 
running to and fro of many (Dan. 12 : 4 — possibly 
referring to increased traveling facilities) ; more 
righteousness and a wider-spread reign of peace on 
our earth than at present exists. But all these things 
are virtually embraced in the list given in the twenty- 
fourth chapter of Matthew. So, taking that list as 
at least the most widely inclusive statement of the 
events which we are considering, and classifying 
these events, whether found in Matthew's twenty- 
fourth chapter or elsewhere in Scripture — taking 
these data somewhat in the order of their importance 
as determinative of the time of the advent, we have : 

1. Wars and rumors of wars; political disturb- 
ances, changes and commotions among the nations. 

2. Increase of knowledge, and of traveling facili- 
ties, if this last is what is meant by Daniel's expres- 
sion, " many shall run to and fro." Also a general 
advance in all matters appertaining to culture and 
industrial interests. 

3. Startling natural phenomena, such as a dark- 
ening of the sun and moon ; a falling of the stars, 



TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING 8? 

and a shaking of the powers of heaven ; earthquakes, 
and as Luke adds, " the sea and the waves roar- 
ing." Moreover, here might be located those occur- 
rences of a distressful nature, which more particu- 
larly affect human life — the famines and pestilences, 
and other matters of the kind, for fear of which, in 
their coming upon the earth, men's hearts shall fail 
them (Luke 21 :26). 

4. The gathering-in of the fulness of the Gen- 
tiles, or a universal proclamation of the gospel, with 
its attendant effects. Righteousness and peace ex- 
isting to a greater extent than now in the world. 

5. Conversion of the Jews as a nation. Possibly 
also their return to the Holy Land. 

6. The first great apostasy, believed by many 
Protestant scholars to be the Roman Catholic de- 
parture from the true faith, or, as an institution, 
the papacy. Sometimes also known as Antichrist. 

7. Possibly also a second apostasy, and connected 
with it, great tribulation. (See Rev. 20: 7-10; Matt. 
24: 29; taught also, as some think, in Rev. 17: 8-17; 
19:19, 20.) 

Now, looking hastily over the above numbers, 
any one can see that the first three of them, being 
matters only of common occurrence, do not signify 
anything very definite or precise, in the way of de- 
termining time. For wars and rumors of wars, 
and matters of that kind, have occurred in all the 
ages past, and, doubtless, will continue to occur; 
so that, being so very common, no particular one of 



88 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

those events can be taken as a date from which to 
estimate chronology. Still, admitting such to be the 
case, these matters do, after all, have no little inter- 
est as connected with the problem before us. For 
they serve, whenever occurring, as reminders and 
assurances that the great event which they precede 
will come to pass in time; and also as to the exact 
date itself they may be considered as furnishing cor- 
roborative testimony, even if their evidence is not 
definite enough to be a principal or independent 
deposition in the case. Moreover, these events, al- 
though they are common, or only of ordinary occur- 
rence, may yet be, in their magnitude or quality, so 
extraordinary, and of such uncommon nature, as to 
serve, after all, as real way-marks on the road 
toward the coming of Christ. So, for instance, the 
great wars that took place in connection with the 
downfall of the Roman empire, the clashing of na- 
tion against nation, and the collision of kingdoms 
which then occurred — these matters being so promi- 
nent and conspicuous in their nature, they form, by 
themselves, a kind of special event, and so from 
them may be reckoned time toward the Saviour's 
coming. So also, the great universal war, which 
seems to be so widely expected among certain classes 
of eschatologists, as a matter that will take place 
somewhere in the East, and perhaps in connection 
with the Mohammedan religion — called the war 
with Gog and Magog, sometimes also Armageddon 
(Rev. 20 : 8, 9; 16 : 14-16) — this too, if it really 



TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING 89 

does occur and the prophecy respecting it is not to 
be interpreted in a spiritual sense, will surely be a 
date having very close reference to the end of 
worldly history and to our Lord's coming. For, im- 
mediately in connection with that conflict, and, in- 
deed, taking part in it, the Lord himself, according 
to the prediction (this, though, may be interpreted 
spiritually), seems to be present; and directly after- 
ward he appears in judgment upon the great white 
throne (Rev. 20 : 11). 



VI 

TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING — THE SUBJECT 
CONCLUDED 

This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all 
the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall 
the end come. Matt. 24 : 14. 

Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness 
of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be 
saved. Rom. 11 : 25, 26. 

Then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord 
shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall 
destroy with the brightness of his coming. 2 Thess 2 : 8. 

/NGATHERING of the Gentiles. But the really 
and unmistakably determining events are those 
which remain to be considered, viz., the last four in 
our list. The first one of these is what we have, a 
number of times elsewhere, called the gathering-in 
of the fulness of the Gentiles, It has been also 
termed — with reference to the words of Jesus, in 
Matt. 24 : 14, that " this gospel of the kingdom shall 
be preached in all the world for a witness unto all 
nations ; and then shall the end come " — the univer- 
sal proclamation of the gospel. Of all the time- 
determining events this, it seems to the writer is, 
from our standpoint, the most serviceable as bear- 
ing upon the date of the advent. For it is not only 
an event that is clearly prophesied to take place 
90 



TIME OF THE LORDS COMING 9 1 

before the coming of Christ, but it is also one that 
is now going forward, and will continue so to do 
until it is all complete. Therefore, standing as we 
do in the midst of this progressive event, or in its 
presence, we are able, with some definiteness, to 
forecast the time when it will be finished ; and so, of 
course, since the " end " comes directly afterwards, 
when our Lord may be expected. 

The important question, therefore, now is, how 
long before this prophecy of a universal proclama- 
tion of the gospel, or if we choose to take the other 
idea of the gathering-in of the fulness of the Gen- 
tiles, how long before either or both of these pre- 
dictions will be fully accomplished? Regarding 
that matter, any number of different opinions may 
obtain, and the question will be decided somewhat 
by the view taken of the work to be done in the way 
of converting the world. If, with the pre-millen- 
nialists in general, we say that there is not neces- 
sary any particular increase in the number of people 
converted, or that the gospel has already been 
preached in all the world, as the Saviour said, for a 
witness to the nations, and this is about all that is 
'required to be done; then, of course, accepting this 
view, the work may be looked upon as already ac- 
complished. But if on the other hand, we, with 
the post-millennialists, affirm that the in-gathering 
of the nations, or, as is the Scripture expression, 
the coming in of the fulness of the Gentiles (Rom. 
ii :25), is the experience to be had by the world, 



92 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

and, in effect, the same as that intended by the 
Saviour's words about a universal proclamation 
of the gospel for a witness, then, to be sure, here 
is a work that has not yet, it would seem, been ac- 
complished, or even nearly accomplished. Far 
from it. According to the usual post-millenary 
conception, the part of the world now converted 
is very small when compared with that part which 
still remains to be converted; or, in other words, 
the great bulk of humanity is yet to be brought in 
faith and obedience to Christ, whereas that por- 
tion of it which now occupies such relation to him 
is comparatively small. According to this view, 
then, a large share of the work still remains to 
be done; and all that has thus far been achieved 
is, in reality, only a beginning of the great work still 
before the church. 

The question again arises, what, according to 
the Bible, is the truth in this regard? A consider- 
able share of the world would seem to be converted. 
The question is, must the great mass of humanity, 
as post-millennialists affirm, be converted before 
the work preparatory to the coming of Christ will 
be all achieved? As said, post-millennialists affirm 
this; pre-millennialists deny it. Perhaps the truth 
lies somewhere between the two positions taken; 
that is to say, between the view that it is not neces- 
sary for the nations, or at all events, for the great 
mass of the heathen world, to be converted, but 
only for the gospel to be preached to these people 



TIME OF THE LORD S COMING 93 

for a witness, and the view held by post-millen- 
narians in general, that the great body of the people 
in all nations must be brought to Christ before his 
second advent can be expected. Suppose we say, 
the gospel must indeed be preached to all nations 
for a witness, but also there are legitimate results 
to be expected from this preaching — the same 
results, in truth, as those which Paul had in view 
in his expression about the fulness of the Gentiles 
coming in. But, on the other hand, suppose we 
say that the " fulness of the Gentiles " does not mean 
every individual belonging to all the heathen 
nations, nor to the nations now Christian, nor even 
the great mass of these peoples, but only that por- 
tion of them which God intends shall be brought 
in, or the elect? Then in each of these two ways 
of stating matters we get about the same idea. 
Carried out more fully, this view would be that 
the conversion of the world means about the same 
thing as bringing the heathen into a similar moral 
and spiritual state to that now existing on the in- 
side of Christendom — a conversion which is, to a 
great extent, merely nominal. When all the hea- 
then nations shall be converted to a recognition of 
Christianity as the dominant religion among them, 
and when the proportion of converted people in 
these nations is as large as that now existing 
among the so-called Christian peoples, then per- 
haps, without doing violence to the Scripture 
prophecies and representations, it may be expected 



94 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

that Christ will come ; because then all the evangel- 
izing work required to be done before his advent 
would seem to be accomplished. 

To be sure, even with this limited view of the 
work, there is still much evangelizing necessary. 
But if the gospel continues to have as great tri- 
umphs in the future as it has in the past, especially 
if during, say, the next one hundred years, mission- 
ary operations continue to multiply as rapidly, both 
in the extent of territory occupied and in the appli- 
ances used, as has been the case for the last fifty 
years, who shall say that the time just specified is not 
sufficient, perhaps more than sufficient, for accom- 
plishing all the evangelizing work necessary ? Years 
ago Doctor Hodge, of Princeton, said : " The won- 
derful success of missions in our day goes to prove 
that the conversion of the Gentile world is a work 
assigned to the church under the present gospel 
dispensation. Barriers deemed insurmountable 
have been removed; facilities of access and inter- 
course have been increased a hundredfold; hun- 
dreds of missionary stations have been established 
in every part of the world; many thousands of 
converts have been gathered into churches, and 
hundreds of thousands of children are under Chris- 
tian instruction ; the foundations of ancient systems 
of idolatry have been undermined; nations, lately 
heathen, have become Christian, and are taking 
part in sending the gospel to those still sitting in 
darkness; and nothing seems wanting to secure 



TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING 95 

the gathering in of the Gentiles but a revival of 
the missionary spirit of the apostolic age in the 
churches of the nineteenth century " (" Systematic 
Theol.," Vol. Ill, pp. 804, 805). Since then, as is 
known, very extraordinary advancement has been 
made in all lines of mission work. 

In the same line, but more recently, Dr. Justin 
A. Smith, in his " Commentary on Revelation " (p. 
280), observes: "It has been said that in twenty- 
five years more, if the present rate of progress con- 
tinues, India will become as thoroughly Christian 
as Great Britain is to-day ; there will be thirty mil- 
lions of Christians in China, and Japan will be as 
fully Christianized as America is now. The old 
heathen systems, they tell us, are honeycombed 
through and through by Christian influence. It 
looks as though the day may soon come when 
these systems, struck by vigorous blows, will fall 
in tremendous collapse. Meantime every weapon 
formed against Christianity breaks in the hand that 
holds it. Already the Lord's right hand hath got- 
ten him the victory." 

The prospect, therefore, would seem to be pecu- 
liarly encouraging. But, of course, all our reason- 
ing in this case goes on the presumption that the 
tares are to continue with the wheat, or in other 
words, that the world is not all to be converted be- 
fore Christ comes. This, we hold (though not 
in the sense of the pre-millennialists), is the cor- 
rect view. For proof we refer not only to the 



96 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

parable of the tares and wheat above alluded to, 
and to the general teaching of that parable, but 
also to the clearly asserted fact in Paul's descrip- 
tion of Antichrist, or " the man of sin," that this 
power is to continue until the very coming of 
Christ; for it is to be destroyed by " the brightness 
of his coming." Also, the Saviour's expression, 
" When the son of man cometh, shall he find faith 
on the earth ? " would seem to imply that in his 
view the world would be far from being all Chris- 
tian at the time of his coming; a fact which is 
also very clearly taught in another of the parables, 
— that of the drag-net, where the good and bad 
fish are both not only caught, but kept in the net 
until the general assorting; then each class is 
dealt with by itself. " So shall it be," says the 
Saviour, " at the end of the world : the angels shall 
come forth and sever the wicked from among the 
just." The fact, therefore, would seem to be defi- 
nitely established, that the world, instead of being 
all converted at the time of Christ's coming, will 
have in it a great many impenitent and unbelieving 
people. Many tares there will be; and many bad 
fish, as well as good ones. If this is so, then the 
glowing descriptions of abounding righteousness 
given respecting Messiah's kingdom in the Old 
Testament must be tempered by opposite descrip- 
tions found elsewhere and particularly in the New 
Testament — by Paul's description, for example, 
of Antichrist, and of the continuance of this 



TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING 9? 

wicked power in the world, notwithstanding the 
existence and all the widespread effects and tri- 
umphs of the gospel. Certainly, the cause of 
Christ is to attain supreme control in the world; 
Satan, also, during the thousand years mentioned 
in Revelation, is to be shut up in the bottomless 
pit, and bound with chains, so that during that 
time, the nations will not be deceived by him. Still, 
the fact of Antichrist's existing during the same 
period, would seem to indicate that the binding of 
Satan must admit, to a certain extent, also of his 
going free; and so it is with the other one-sided 
descriptions found in the Bible of the triumphs and 
influence of Christianity in our world. These glo- 
rious features must be so toned down by other and 
darker matters, which are revealed with equal clear- 
ness in the Bible, that the picture we get will be 
correct — correct, we may say, because harmonious, 
and because inclusive of all the colorings and shad- 
ings. * For want of observing so simple and yet 

1 Two views are presented in the Bible regarding the state of things 
to exist directly before the end of the world, or the coming of 
Christ. One of these views is that the period will be one of 
triumph and glory to the church, a period of the universal spread 
of the gospel, of Christ's putting all enemies under his feet, and 
of his reigning from the river unto the ends of the earth; also 
a period of abounding righteousness and peace, and even of material 
prosperity. Then, on the other hand, the Scriptures give us quite 
a contrary picture; namely, one of apostasy from the truth, of 
carnal security in the church, of more or less' extensive ungodli- 
ness, of persecution and great tribulation — such tribulation, says 
the Saviour, " as was not since the beginning of the world " (comp. 
Matt. 24 : 21 with ibid. 29; also see Dan. 12:1; Rev. 16 : 18; 20 : 
7-9). Now, of course, these two views cannot be regarded as 
G 



9& tHAT BLESSED HOPE 

so rational a principle, not a few eschatologists have 
made blundering work; and so, moreover, the two 
schools of interpreters — pre-millennialists and post- 
millennialists — have come into dissension with each 
other. 

Conversion of the Jews. Also the conversion of 
the Jews is a matter that is clearly revealed in the 
Scriptures to take place yet before the coming of 
Christ; and therefore it is an event determinative, 
in this relation, of time. This doctrine of the Jews 
becoming converted is a very old one in the church. 
So far back even as the times of the apostles, the 
question, what would be the position of the Jews 
as a nation to Christ, was a very interesting one, 
and one often discussed one way and another by 
the apostles. Many of that people did accept Jesus 
as the true Messiah, but many of them also did 
not accept, and would not accept him in that re- 
lation. To this very day the great body of the 
children of Abraham stubbornly refuse to acknowl- 
edge our Saviour as their Saviour — or as their 
prophet, priest, and king. The inquiry, therefore, 
is still a pertinent one : Will this people, so unani- 
mously having rejected Jesus, come back yet in 
repentance and faith, with equal numbers or pro- 
portionate numbers, to him? 

There are many Scriptures, both in the Old 
Testament and the New, which speak positively 

mutually contradictory; but they are rather complementary one 
to the other, and a complete picture is a combination of both. 



TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING 99 

on this point; but to notice only one fragment of 
the argument, we may say that Paul's words in the 
eleventh chapter of Romans establish the matter in 
question beyond a peradventure. We are there 
told, under the general figure of an olive tree in 
relation to its branches, that the Jews are the 
natural branches broken off from the original tree, 
and that the Gentiles are branches taken from the 
wild olive, and grafted into the parent stock; and 
that after a time the natural branches will be re- 
stored. For " blindness in part," says Paul, " is 
happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles 
be come in. And so " — that is, after the Gentile 
fulness has been reached by the gospel — " all Is- 
rael shall be saved." No question, therefore, about 
the Jews being converted; and here, moreover, we 
have a precise indication as to the time when that 
event will occur. It is after the fulness of the Gen- 
tiles — that is, the required number of heathen — have 
been reached and saved by the gospel. Then, says 
Paul, all Israel shall be saved. But the difficulty 
here is that, after all, we make no advance in our 
argument. For again, all depends upon the time 
when the Gentiles will be converted ; that being the 
date indicated, from which will begin the conver- 
sion of the Jews. 

Still some advantage is gained by the discussion 
we are having; for even if there is no independent 
or special Scripture indication given us as to the 
time when the Jews will be converted — save the 

LOFC. 



100 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

conversion of the Gentiles — yet, any facts, whether 
occurring now or in the past, that have a historical 
bearing upon the conversion of the Jews in any 
numbers, would seem to have a bearing also upon 
their final conversion, or their coming as a nation 
to Christ. These facts, moreover, which indicate, 
or might indicate, a national conversion of the 
Jews as at any time occurring, would, with equal 
certainty and definiteness, indicate the time of the 
coming-in of the fulness of the Gentiles. For this 
time of the Gentile fulness being reached, is the 
same as that of the conversion of the Israelitish 
nation to Christ. 

Are there any evidences, then, in facts occurring, 
or that have occurred, in connection with the Jewish 
people, which indicate, or would seem with any 
degree of clearness to indicate, a conversion of the 
Jews from their abandonment and rejection of 
Christ to a practical acceptance of him? Only two 
such facts we will endeavor to point out. One of 
them is a widespread rationalistic movement that 
is known to be obtaining at present, and for some 
time past to have been working, in Jewish theology 
and in the Jewish religion generally. This move- 
ment of late has made itself apparent by public con- 
ferences held, and by very liberalistic declarations 
adopted by these conferences, which look toward an 
abandonment of many of the essential features of 
ancient Judaism; such, for example, as the expec- 
tation of a Messiah yet to come, an exclusive 



TIME OF THE LORDS COMING IOI 

observance of Saturday as a day of rest and worship, 
and many distinctions between things lawful and 
unlawful in matters of a sanitary and dietary nature. 
In other words, the Judaism of to-day, being, as it 
seems, largely under the control of this rationalistic 
movement, threatens to do away with most or nearly 
all the distinctive features of that religion as it has 
existed in the past, and to be preparing for a general 
shipwreck ; it being in essence already only a kind of 
Deism or Unitarianism. Thus the way seems to 
be opening for this people, by an abandonment of 
its own faith, to come to a better one, which will be, 
of course, Christianity — this being the only religion 
that can satisfy either the mind, the heart, or the 
conscience, when once these powers have emptied 
themselves of a false content, and thus have come to 
appreciate their needs. There is, therefore, still 
some hope of the conversion of the Jews, even, as 
it would seem, from the standpoint of facts occur- 
ring at present on the inside of their faith ; although 
this argument, drawn from the workings of ration- 
alism, we do not, of course, esteem a very strong 
one. 

The other fact which we wish to mention is the 
frequent agitation that takes place, both on the in- 
side of Judaism and in various Christian circles, as 
to a return of the Jews to the holy land. To be 
sure, these agitations generally amount to very 
little; they are simply temporary disturbances of 
human thought and feeling. But the interest taken 



102 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

for some reason, so long and often so widely, both 
by Jews and Gentiles, in the matter we have men- 
tioned, would seem to indicate that there must be 
something in it — something perhaps bearing upon 
the actual return of that people yet to the land of 
their fathers, and so, of course, bearing upon the 
subject of their conversion. The conversion of the 
Jews, however, can take place, for aught there seems 
to be in the Scriptures against it, just as well out- 
side of Palestine as in it ; and the mere fact of this 
people being in the holy land, or of their return- 
ing to it, would, one would suppose, have but little 
practical effect in the way of bringing them in re- 
pentance and faith to Christ. Still, as there is noth- 
ing decisive in the Scriptures favoring the return 
under consideration, so there would seem to be also 
nothing forbidding it. The matter is one regarding 
which an argument can easily be built up either for 
or against, according as the Scriptures selected and 
considered, are either on the one side or the other. 
But when it comes to all that the pre-millen- 
nialists affirm regarding a restoration of the old 
Jewish economy, the reestablishment of that people 
as a theocratic nation in Palestine ; the rebuilding of 
Jerusalem and the temple; and a re-institution of 
the long since abandoned sacrifices and other cere- 
monial observances belonging to the Jews, then, in 
the name of a correct or reasonable interpretation 
of Scripture, we protest against all such notions. 
" Type and shadow," says an able writer, " have 



TIME OF THE LORDS COMING 103 

passed away, never to return. To introduce them 
again, would be to light a candle at noonday for the 
purpose of finding by means of it the sun." That 
would be a " return to the weak and beggarly 
elements of the earlier worship." If there is any- 
thing clearly taught in the Scriptures, and especially 
in the New Testament, it is that God is no respecter 
of persons, and that the old economy was but a 
transitory one, to give place on the coming in of 
the new. 1 (See Heb. 8 : 7-13; 9 : 1-14; Gal, 4 : 9, 
10; 6 : 15; Col. 2 : 16-23; Acts 10 134, 35; 11 : 

170 

Antichrist, or the Great Apostasy, In our list of 
the events which have a more determinative bear- 
ing upon the date of Christ's return we have put 
down two apostasies; one of them being so clearly 
revealed or mentioned in the Bible as to be certain, 
and the other only so mentioned that its occurrence 
is possible. These two apostasies may perhaps be 
considered as one, or as a single apostasy appearing 
under different forms, although the one begins its 
career much earlier than the other. They both, 
however, have the same ending in human history, 
which is at the second coming of Christ. Mention 
is made of them not only in the New Testament, 
but also in the Old, as for instance, particularly of 
the first, in Daniel, seventh chapter (ver. 7, 8, 23- 
26) ; also in Jesus' great eschatological discourse 
recorded in all the synoptics; in Paul's second 

1 See Topic G, in Appendix. 



104 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

letter to the Thessalonians (2 : 2-10) ; in the first 
Epistle of John (2 : 18, 22; 4 : 3) ; and in Rev- 
elation (see especially chap. 13, 17, 18 and 19). 
Also if the second apostasy is to be regarded as 
an event distinct and separate from the first, par- 
ticular mention is made of this in the last part of 
Revelation twenty (ver. 7-10; see also Dan. 11:21- 
45; Matt. 24I29). 1 

According to these Scriptures each one of the 
apostasies under consideration is a great persecut- 
ing power, partly secular and partly ecclesiastical in 
nature, opposing and exalting itself defiantly against 
God, making war upon the church, and attempting 
especially to usurp the place and influence of Christ 
in the world — hence called Antichrist; its actuating 
spirit being hatred of the gospel, or opposition to 
everything that is truly Christian. 

So, at all events, it is with that evil power, " the 
man of sin " and " the son of perdition," described 
so fully by Paul, in Second Thessalonians. There 
the power or principle of evil, or whatever it is that 
is referred to, is set before us, first of all, as a 
great departure from the faith. Secondly, it is 
represented as a person, " the man of sin " and " son 



1 Some scholars distinguish between the beast coming up out of 
the bottomless pit, as mentioned in Rev. 17, and the first and 
second beasts which are described in the thirteenth chapter. The 
latter, they say, represent the papacy, but the former stands for 
some historical personage yet to appear. Many modern interpreters, 
of the preterist school, hold Nero to be the real Antichrist of 
Revelation. 



TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING 105 

of perdition," opposing and exalting himself above 
all that is called God, or that is worshiped ; " so 
that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, show- 
ing himself that he is God." Next, this same power 
is represented as a " mystery of iniquity " already 
working; and finally, as "that Wicked," whose 
" coming is after the working of Satan with all 
power and signs and lying wonders, and with all 
deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that per- 
ish." Moreover, we are told that this opposing 
agency shall be destroyed by the brightness of the 
Lord's coming, and shall be consumed with the 
breath of his mouth. Now this whole description 
answers so exactly to the leading characteristics of 
the papal power, as that institution has been known 
in history, that most or at least many Protestant 
scholars have been in the habit of identifying the 
apostasy or Antichrist of Paul with the papal religion 
and polity. If the pope is not Antichrist, it is ob- 
served, what power or principle is there, or has 
there ever been in the world, that deserves so well 
Paul's description, or that answers so fully, not only 
in the general features, but even in its details, this 
portraiture which Paul depicts for us? The truth 
is that even papists themselves have discerned in 
this description of the man of sin and the son of per- 
dition as given by Paul, so striking a likeness to 
their own system that some of them in the Middle 
Ages admitted the resemblance to exist; and later 
Catholic theologians have exerted themselves not 



106 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

a little in attempts at turning away the odium which 
comes upon their ecclesiasticism because of the 
fact that so generally in the minds of men this re- 
ligious, or rather religio-political system has been 
identified with the Antichrist of Scripture prophecy. 
Some there are, and modern Romish theologians 
among the number, who look upon the Antichrist 
of the Bible not as an institution or corporate power, 
but as a single individual, one whose doing and ex- 
istence in the world is yet to appear; and thus it is 
that the advocates of the papacy's not being Anti- 
christ, would establish that point — by saying that 
this antagonistic power is one yet to come. Also 
some try to make a distinction between mystical 
Babylon as described in the seventeenth and eight- 
eenth chapters of Revelation, and Antichrist, which 
they say is the beast mentioned in the last part of 
the seventeenth and nineteenth chapters. 

But be this distinction, and many other things 
that are said about Antichrist, correct or otherwise, 
certain it is that there are very good reasons for 
regarding the Church of Rome, especially in its 
religio-political aspects, as the apostate power de- 
scribed by Paul in the second chapter of Second 
Thessalonians ; and certain also that this power is, 
as to its extinction, immediately connected with the 
advent of Christ. For we read of " that Wicked " 
who was to be revealed, that the Lord " shall con- 
sume him with the spirit of his mouth, and shall 
destroy him with the brightness of his coming"; 



TIME OF THE LORDS COMING 107 

also, that " that day (which is the day of Christ's 
advent) shall not come, except there come a falling 
away first, and the man of sin be revealed." The 
manifestation, therefore, of Christ, from heaven, 
will be directly connected with the destruction of 
Antichrist, or, if we have interpreted this matter 
rightly, of the papal power. 

The only question therefore now remaining which 
must be answered before we can with reasonable 
certainty and even with some definiteness, announce 
the time of the Lord's coming, is the date of the 
destruction of the papacy, or how much time must 
yet elapse before Romanism comes to an end. Un- 
fortunately here for our problem, no one can give 
us a definite and satisfactory reply. Some who have 
examined the matter, tell us that the power of Rome 
was first broken by the Reformation in the six- 
teenth century; that moreover it received a deadly 
wound, at least as to its rule over the Latin nations, 
and so, in a measure over the world, in 1793-1798, 
when the French cast off the pope's authority, and 
the pope himself was made a prisoner and carried 
into captivity by Napoleon's soldiers; also, that in 
1870, when Victor Emmanuel took possession of 
Rome and deprived the papacy of its temporal do- 
minion, then also it received a very serious wound, 
and ever since has been in a dying condition. All 
this, of course, would argue that the coming of the 
Saviour is near; or at least, that the papacy is con- 
suming away — an experience which, according to 



I08 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

Daniel (7:26), is the method in which the 
power we are considering seems likely to expire. At 
any rate, the commencement of its decline may be 
in that way, and its complete extinction be brought 
about more suddenly, by the coming of the Lord, as 
declared in the prophecy. 

So, also, if we are to accept a second apostasy 
as yet to occur — a doctrine which would seem to 
be warranted by the words in Rev. 20 : 7-10 — 
then too, as may be seen from the scripture im- 
mediately following, this event and the second com- 
ing of the Lord have an immediate connection. So 
in either of the cases, the termination of the apos- 
tasy gives us a mark for determining something 
about the time of our Lord's coming. Only in the 
case of a second apostasy occurring, inasmuch as 
such an event has not yet commenced in history, 
of course, we cannot prophesy from appearances 
anything about its end. To us, therefore, no 
serviceable time-indication comes from this source. 1 



1 For a fuller discussion of who or what Antichrist is, see 
Appendix, Topic E. 



VII 

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS 

NOW, looking back over our entire discussion 
and the points we have established, we name 
the following as such points, or general conclusions : 

1. A literal, personal, visible and glorious com- 
ing of our Lord is clearly prophesied in the Scrip- 
tures. This event is, therefore, to be expected with 
positive and unwavering faith. 

2. The objects, or concomitant events, of Christ's 
appearance are (i) a general resurrection of the 
dead; (2) the judgment of the world, or of every 
man, good and bad, according to his works; and 
(3) the " restitution " or consummation of all things, 
which includes the final conflagration, the bringing 
into existence of a new heaven and a new earth, and 
the perfecting by Christ of his mediatorial kingdom. 

3. As to the time of the advent, we have learned, 
from a considerably extended examination of what 
is called the millennium, that this matter of the 
thousand years, as mentioned in the twentieth chap- 
ter of Revelation, is not to be regarded as a neces- 
sary event to occur before the Lord's epiphany ; or in 
other words, that the millennium is not one of the 
scriptural data upon which a calculation of the 
time of the Saviour's coming is to be based. 

109 



HO THAT BLESSED HOPE 

4. On the other hand we learned respecting the 
millennium, that it is not necessary to abandon be- 
lief in it altogether, in order to hold the view of 
its being not a prerequisite to the Lord's coming. 
For that, it is only necessary to give such an inter- 
pretation of the thousand years as that at least a 
part of the period can be considered as having 
already elapsed. It is, therefore, the post-millen- 
nial notion of the millennium, or of a very long 
period of such exceeding triumph and glory to the 
gospel as that it cannot properly be considered as 
having yet commenced, that is to be given up, not 
necessarily the millennium itself. 

5. The position, then, taken in these pages, re- 
garding the millennium, is: first, that it is a mys- 
tery, or a matter that seems to be too indefinitely 
revealed to form a definite article of faith, especially 
when opposed as it is by other and plainer Scrip- 
ture teachings; secondly, that whatever of the 
" thousand years " it is necessary to retain, in order 
to give some interpretation to the passage in Rev. 
20 : 1-6, the period must be so interpreted as that 
at least a large part of it can be considered as be- 
longing to the past; and thirdly, that some of the 
glories, especially those mentioned in the Old Tes- 
tament, which are usually included in the millen- 
nium, would best be referred to the eternal estate 
of Messiah's kingdom, or to his glorious rule in 
heaven, rather than to any condition of things on 
this side of the advent. Furthermore touching the 



GENERAL CONCLUSIONS III 

millennial reign it may be said that, inasmuch as 
other data than it are the ones customarily taken in 
Scripture for estimating or visioning the time of 
the Lord's coming (see Matt., chap. 24, and 2 
Thess. 2 : 1-10), we may best follow this customary 
example, and so leave the " thousand years," at least 
very largely out of the account. 

6. Doing thus, or attempting to estimate the 
date of our Lord's appearance from other time- 
indications than the chiliad mentioned in Revelation, 
twentieth chapter, we get from these data, that 
is, from the evident progression in the fulfilment 
of prophecy ; from certain prophetic numbers ; from 
certain beasts and other object symbols given to us 
in the Bible; also, and especially from various 
events which are clearly prophesied to take place 
before the advent — from all these sources we ob- 
tain, we think, sufficient information regarding the 
point we are considering to say that, as matters 
look, the coming of our Lord cannot now be so 
exceedingly distant from us, but rather is some- 
what nigh. At all events, this is the better way to 
regard it. 

7. Just how near though, that event may be, 
there are no means furnished us for deciding. 
Luther thought, away back in his day, that in about 
three hundred years from then the Lord would 
come. Perhaps that period, or a shorter one, would 
be a good limit for us still to put before the mind. 
However that may be, sure it is that the advent is 



I I 2 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

nigher now than it has been in any day past, and 
nearly nineteen centuries nearer than when Jesus 
ascended from Mount Olivet to heaven. 

As to the practical improvement of our subject, 
we need only to observe that the second coming of 
Christ to the wicked ought to be a source of alarm 
and an instigation to immediate repentance; to be- 
lievers, on the other hand, it is an event for which 
they should be constantly and fervently looking with 
all holy conversation and godliness, trying to pre- 
pare both themselves and others for it. " What I 
say unto you, I say unto all " — said the Saviour — 
" Watch." " Watch, therefore ; for ye know not 
what hour your Lord doth come." 

Watch, ye saints, with eyelids waking, 
Lo ! the powers of heaven are shaking, 
Keep your lamps all trimmed and burning, 
Ready for your Lord's returning. 

Nations wane, though proud and stately, 
Christ his kingdom hasteneth greatly, 
Earth her latest pangs is summing, 
Shout, ye saints, your Lord is coming! 

Watch, for the time is short; 

Watch, while 't is called to-day ; 
Watch, lest temptations overcome; 

Watch, Christian, watch and pray! 
Watch, for the flesh is weak; 

Watch, for the foe is strong; 
Watch, lest the Bridegroom knock in vain; 

Watch, though he tarry long. 



APPENDIX 

TREATING OF VARIOUS KINDRED TOPICS 



EXPLANATORY NOTE 

In the foregoing pages has been presented what 
is believed to be the regular scriptural, or common 
orthodox view of our Lord's parousia. It is that 
his return will be literal, personal, visible, and glo- 
rious in form; and that it will be accompanied by 
various most extraordinary events, such as a dis- 
solution of nature, a resurrection of the dead, a 
general judgment, and the ushering in of Christ's 
everlasting kingdom. Now in connection with 
this general doctrine, there have appeared various 
questions and topics, which, because of their being 
intimately associated with the general subject, may 
be termed side issues or kindred matters ; and it 
is the especial purpose of this appendix to treat 
of these. 

As the case now stands, it is, at least with certain 
classes of scholars, not so much a question whether, 
according to the teachings of Scripture, pre-mil- 
lennialism or post-millennialism is correct, but it is 
rather whether there is to be expected any real re- 
turn of our Lord from heaven. In other words, 
it is whether, with the evidences now obtainable and 
that may be used, the old orthodox view of our 
h 113 



114 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

Lord's second coming can be any longer retained, 
or whether it should be abandoned, in favor of some 
other, preterist, non-personal, or figurative view, 
that really does away with the whole orthodox doc- 
trine. Is there then, or is there not, yet to be such 
an event in human history as orthodox Christians 
have always believed would be the final and real 
coming of Christ? or is this great hope and expec- 
tation of God's people to be abandoned as a dream or 
an error; while some other view, now stigmatized, 
perhaps, as heretical, shall take the place of it? 

This is one of the considerations prompting to 
the discussion of these side matters, in an appendix ; 
and another reason is, that a proper understanding 
of these kindred topics will help to a proper or a 
better understanding of the general subject itself. 
What these kindred topics are, will appear to the 
reader as he goes forward; and we need only to 
say of them additionally, that they might have 
formed a second or more constituent part of the 
treatise ; but owing to their miscellaneous character 
we have preferred to put them in an appendix. 



TOPIC A 

" NEW-THEOLOGY " AND RATIONALISTIC VIEWS 
OF THE ADVENT 

Among the various non-personal or merely 
figurative views that have been taken of Christ's 



APPENDIX 115 

parousia there are especially two, or rather two 
classes of views which, because of their wide- 
reaching and destructive import, and also because 
of their having been put forward with no little show 
of learning and confidence, deserve to be examined 
with some care. The question regarding them is, 
whether they are in accordance with Scripture, and 
are therefore true — or are they to be rejected as 
unscriptural and false? 

One of these peculiar views, or classes of views, 
is a conception of Christ's return which has been 
called the spiritual view, but under the words 
"spiritual view," as used here, there are embraced 
really two different doctrines. 

I. The Older Spiritual or Unitarian View. One 
of these doctrines is that by the second coming of 
Christ we are to understand only a kind of dispen- 
sation of the truth. Jesus promised his disciples, 
we are told, that " if he went away, he would come 
again unto them " ; but he only meant that he would 
come in a fuller propagation and influence of his 
gospel in the world than had been accomplished 
during his life. In other words, he identified him- 
self with the truths which he had proclaimed, and 
he believed that after his death these truths would 
become " the criteria of Divine judgment, according 
to which all the righteous would be distinguished 
as his subjects, and all the iniquitous should be 
separated from his kingdom. Then it would be 
seen that he was the Messiah, and through the 



Il6 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

eternal principles of truth which he had taught he 
would sit upon a throne — not literally, in person, 
as some of his hearers supposed, blessing the Jews 
and cursing the Gentiles, but spiritually in the 
truth, dispensing joy to good men and woe to bad 
men, according to their deserts. ,, 

This is essentially the theory as advocated by 
Mr. W. R. Alger, in his " Critical History of the 
Doctrine of a Future Life " ; and we may say of it, 
that it is a notion which has often been taken by 
Unitarians and others of so-called liberalistic be- 
lief. But that this view is wholly contrary to the 
general teachings of Scripture with regard to our 
Lord's second coming, does not perhaps need any 
proof. 

We will only quote against it some of the posi- 
tive, clear, and decisive utterances of Christ. For 
example, in those words already referred to, about 
Jesus' promising his disciples that if he went away, 
he would come again unto them, it should be 
noticed that it is the same / who was to go away 
that would return ; so that if Christ died in person, 
and in person ascended to heaven, it was also in 
person that he would return to his disciples. So 
also in Jesus' promise, given to his disciples (John 
14:2, 3), that he was going away to prepare a 
place for them in the heavenly " mansions," and 
that if he prepared such a place he would come 
again and receive them unto himself, that where he 
was, there they should be also; from these words 



APPENDIX 1 1 7 

it certainly is evident that our Lord's entire con- 
ception of his future return was that of a great 
objective, external fact, and not merely of some 
internal subjective experience, in the hearts and 
lives of his disciples. Not to give any further 
proofs, therefore, this doctrine of the older Unita- 
rians and other " liberalists " is, surely, to be rejected 
as wholly opposed to Scripture and consequently 
untrue. 

II. The Later and More Common Spiritual 
View. But another form of this same spiritual 
conception is one that, in recent years, has been 
taken by some " new theology " men, and also by 
some of the " higher critics." Its original pro- 
pounder, or at least the man who first, in English, 
put the theory into elaborate shape, was Dr. I. P. 
Warren, a New England divine. In one of his 
books, entitled " The Parousia " and published more 
than a quarter of a century ago, he put forward a 
theory of our Lord's advent which in some respects 
resembles, and in others differs from, the notion 
we have just considered. According to Doctor War- 
ren the coming of our Saviour must be understood, 
surely, as a spiritual coming, but spiritual in a 
different sense from that taken by the older or Uni- 
tarian doctrine. What this more recent theory 
would have us to understand by the word spiritual 
is that Christ promised to return to his disciples, 
not merely in a dispensation of the truth, but rather 
in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, by 



1 18 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

which means his gospel should be made operative 
in the world. Moreover, the Holy Spirit, being 
with the disciples, would act toward them as a 
Comforter and Helper. This gift of the Holy 
Spirit, which was promised to the disciples, began 
to be bestowed on the day of Pentecost, but it has 
since been given more fully not only to those ear- 
lier followers of Christ, but to all true disciples in 
every Christian age. Consequently this gift is to be 
understood as a continuous or abiding one ; and be- 
cause of that gift, Christ himself may be conceived 
of as always abiding with his disciples. 

As an additional feature of the theory, it might 
be mentioned that Doctor Warren connects the fall 
of Jerusalem, as a providential coming of Christ, 
with his more spiritual coming at Pentecost ; and in 
that way he enlarges, and, as he thinks, perfects his 
doctrine. * 

But as was shown in our examination of the old 
Unitarian view, so we can also here very easily 
demonstrate the opposition of this newer theory to 
the general teachings of Scripture. For instance, 
in those words of our Lord in which he tells his 
disciples that if he went away, he would send the 

1 This view, in both of its peculiar features, is held also by 
Dr. William Newton Clarke, who says of it, in his " Outline of 
Christian Theology " (p. 442), " The destruction of Jerusalem 
may be called his (Christ's) advent on the negative side." But 
Christ " came positively in the Holy Spirit of power." Also various 
other American teachers of theology seem to have adopted this view, 
e. g., Drs. William Adams Brown, C. A. Beckwith, and J. W. 
Buckham, author of " Christ and the Eternal Order." 



APPENDIX 119 

Holy Spirit, the Comforter, who would lead them 
into all truth, etc. — by these words, surely, Christ 
makes a clear distinction between his own place of 
abode and the scene of the Spirit's activity. The 
Spirit was, according to the representation given, 
to do his work on earth, in the experiences of the 
disciples; but Christ's abode, according to other 
words of his, was to be in his Father's house, or 
in heaven. This being the relation of Christ to the 
Holy Spirit, of course it must be seen that the two 
great personalities are very clearly distinguished 
one from the other. The Spirit abides with the dis- 
ciples here in our world, but Christ, who sends the 
Spirit, has his home up in heaven. Besides, it 
could easily be shown, from many other passages, 
that our Lord's advent is to be looked upon as ex- 
ternal, objective, and not merely as an internal 
presence with his disciples. 

Then too, it could be demonstrated that the 
parousia, when properly understood, is not an 
often repeated act or a process, as is taught 
by the theory under consideration; but it is 
one single event, which will take place at 
the end of time, and in connection with various 
other events, such as have been already indicated. 1 
Moreover, it might still be added, that our Lord's 
second coming, as represented in Scripture, is not 
to be a quiet, unobserved internal reception of the 
Spirit, or even such a reception as was granted on 

1 Review of the process theory at close of this Topic. 



120 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

the day of Pentecost, but an open, widely observed, 
and even a universally beheld event; when he shall 
descend from heaven, as the description is, with a 
shout, the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet 
of God; or as the lightning which, appearing in 
the east, shines even unto the utmost part of heaven. 
"All eyes shall see him," it is said, and even " they 
which pierced him shall look upon him." Then 
moreover shall " all the tribes of the earth mourn, 
and they shall see the Son of man coming in the 
clouds of heaven with power and great glory." 
Surely, this description, given in the Bible, of our 
Lord's second coming has never yet been realized 
in human history, and is not likely to be realized 
before the end of time. 

We might say yet, before concluding this part of 
our discussion, that in one sense we believe, with 
the holders of this spiritual theory, that Christ has 
already, by his Spirit, come into human life, and will 
do so more fully even unto the end of time; but 
while the Scriptures clearly seem to teach this doc- 
trine, they also teach, just as clearly and far more 
abundantly, that the real, full, or final coming of our 
Lord will not take place until the end of the world. 

III. The Past-Historical or Preterist View, But 
the most destructive of all these partial, or rather, 
unscriptural views of the second coming of Christ, 
is one yet to be noticed. It is a theory that was 
elaborated quite a number of years ago, in an Eng- 
lish publication, styled again " The Parousia," and 






APPENDIX 121 

of which the author was Mr. J. Stuart Russell. In 
that book the position is taken — and the same view, 
at least in part, has been advocated by others, as, 
e. g., Dr. Milton S. Terry in his " Biblical Apoc- 
alyptics " * — that all the prophecies appertaining 
to our Lord's parousia had their complete fulfil- 
ment in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman 
army under Titus, in the year 70. That one single 
historical event, we are told, realized all the pecu- 
liarities and various incidents which, according to 
a proper interpretation of Scripture, constitute the 
second coming of Christ, incomparably great and 
grand as this latter event would seem to be. But 
the significance of the destruction of Jerusalem, 
this theory teaches, was so very great, as bearing 
both upon general history and especially the history 
and even essence of Christianity, that all the vast 
import of our Lord's parousia was really accom- 
plished by that event. According to this theory, 
therefore, the second coming of Christ has already 
taken place; it is now a past event, having become 
a fact considerably more than eighteen centuries 
ago. But surely, such a conception, so wide-reach- 
ing in its scope and so destructive both of old or- 
thodox notions and of orthodox expectations, ought 

1 Doctor Terry teaches what he calls the " preterist and historical " 
view, which is that Christ's parousia really began with the fall 
of Jerusalem; and since then it has continued as a process, and 
will doubtless thus continue until the end of time. See his " Bib. 
Apocalyptics," pp. 218, 223, 251, 478, 480, 481, et. al. Also Ezra P. 
Gould, in the " International Commentary on Mark " (pp. 240-255), 
holds the preterist view. 



122 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

to be well established by Scripture, if it is to be 
received as true. 

But what is the evidence to support this theory? 
Are there many passages in the Bible, or any 
passages, that really and truly, and without dif- 
ference of opinion among interpreters, support this 
view ? The truth is that in all our Christian Scrip- 
tures not one single passage can be found that 
clearly and unmistakably gives support to this 
theory. Whatever indorsement it has, comes only 
in the way of inference, or by a strained, forced, and 
unnatural interpretation of just a few Scripture 
passages scattered throughout the synoptic Gospels, 
or found, more particularly, in Jesus' great eschato- 
logical discourse as recorded by Matthew, and less 
fully in the other synoptics. 

In the thirty-fourth verse of the twenty-fourth 
chapter of Matthew's Gospel we have these words : 
" This generation," says the Saviour, " shall not 
pass away until all these things are fulfilled." By 
this utterance the preterists would have us under- 
stand that our Lord, in his view of his own second 
coming, so fully identified that coming with the de- 
struction of Jerusalem that to him the two occur- 
rences meant the same thing, and therefore they 
are to be regarded as occurring at the same time. 
According to this view, therefore, the words "all 
these things," as used in this passage, include all the 
matters of which Christ had been speaking to his 
disciples — not merely " these things " as in the form 



APPENDIX 123 

of the disciples' question and as found in verse 3, 
but each and every other matter also contained in 
the previous part of Christ's discourse. But a com- 
mon orthodox interpretation of this same passage 
is rather to make the words " all these things " 
refer back to the question of the disciples, when they 
inquired of Jesus, just after his prophecy relative to 
the destruction of Jerusalem, "when shall these 
things be? " — evidently alluding to the event just 
mentioned. This, we say, is a common interpreta- 
tion given to that difficult passage by orthodox 
scholars ; but what the passage really and unmistak- 
ably means, no mortal has ever yet been able fully 
and decisively to explain. Perhaps the best way to 
treat this passage is to regard it — taken with its con- 
text — as a kind of mystery, or as one of those pecu- 
liar utterances found in the Bible, which, with our 
present knowledge of Scripture matters, is incapa- 
ble of full and exact exposition, and therefore can 
best be handled, perhaps, by leaving them alone. 1 

1 Perhaps the best interpretation of this difficult passage, and of 
others like it (see foot-note, p. 126), is to say that the destruction of 
Jerusalem was the beginning of the end of the world, or of that 
long series of judgments which finally would overwhelm the entire 
world in destruction. With such a view, therefore, it would be 
proper enough to regard Jerusalem's downfall as both a type and a 
prophecy of the great world catastrophe which is yet to happen; 
also it would not be improper to say that Jesus did actually come, 
in a judicial way, when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman 
army. But this is far from admitting that in the conception of 
Jesus his final coming, regarded as an event, was the same thing 
as the downfall of the holy city of the Jews, and therefore that those 
two events should occur simultaneously. For, in the first place, 
Jesus in various ways distinguished very clearly between the 



124 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

Suppose, then, that we act upon this suggestion; 
and now omitting from our consideration not only 
this one difficult passage found in Matthew, but also 
all other passages that can be adduced by preterists 
to establish their view 1 — then the question arises 
whether there are any other passages of Scripture 
that, in clear, unmistakable language, set forth the 
doctrine of our Lord's second coming. Most cer- 
tainly there are. The Bible is full of such pas- 
sages, and one peculiarity belonging to them all is, 
that they know absolutely nothing about any con- 
nection existing between the destruction of Jeru- 
salem and our Lord's parousia. Indeed, these other 

catastrophe which should befall not only Jerusalem but also the 
Jews, and his own final coming. Then also, by two expressions 
which he used, viz., " the times of the Gentiles " and a prediction 
that his gospel would be preached for a witness among all nations, 
before the end came (see Matt. 24 : 14, and comp. Luke 21 : 24 
with ver. 27 in same chapter) — by these two expressions Jesus seemed 
to put off his second coming to a distant time, while he seems also to 
have always looked upon the threatened destruction of Jerusalem as 
being near. 

Now, putting these two ideas together, Jesus' postponement of his 
parousia to a distant day, and his distinguishing clearly, as he did, 
between the fall of the Jewish capital and his own second coming, 
the conclusion would seem to be inevitable that the destruction of 
Jerusalem could not possibly have been regarded by Jesus as in 
any sense fulfilling really the prophecy of his final coming, or the 
parousia. It may be conceded that Jesus came judicially to our 
world when Jerusalem perished in consequence of a divine judgment, 
but to say that in that catastrophe Jesus also came in the fulness 
of his personality, and accompanied by all the events that are 
prophesied to take place in connection with his parousia, is going 
away beyond the bounds of any warrant from Scripture, and also 
beyond all reasonable interpretation either of Matt. 24 : 34 or of 
any other like passage of Scripture. 

1 Note especially parallel passages to Matt. 24 : 34 in Mark and 
Luke; also Matt. 16 : 28; 10 : 23; Mark 9:1; Matt. 26 : 64. 



APPENDIX 125 

passages very rarely so much as even mention Jeru- 
salem ; much less, then, do they connect the down- 
fall of that city with that great final event in the 
history of our world which is known as Christ's 
second coming, or the parousia. 

Now all these things being true, or at least capa- 
ble of proof, it follows as a corollary, that the vast 
preponderance of Scripture testimony lies not on the 
side of the preterists, but rather supports the old or- 
thodox view of our Lord's return. Moreover, if this 
is so, then it also follows that no reasonable or even 
sane believer in Scripture, should be long in decid- 
ing with which of the two eschatological views just 
mentioned the great probability of truth lies. 

Or to state the case in somewhat different terms, 
we might say that the various Scripture argu- 
ments which can be adduced against the preterist 
notion of our Lord's second coming, are about as 
follows : 

1. This notion contradicts all that is said in the 
Bible about the personal, bodily, visible, and glo- 
rious form of the Saviour's advent. 

2. It forgets the fact that, according to the teach- 
ings of Scripture, our Lord's parousia is to be ac- 
companied by certain most extraordinary events, 
such as a resurrection of the dead, a general judg- 
ment, the dissolution of nature, a new heaven and 
a new earth appearing, and finally the surrender of 
Christ's mediatorial rule to the Father, so that God 
may be all in all. 



126 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

3. This theory forgets also that quite a number 
of occurrences — such as the conversion of the Jews 
as a nation to the Christian faith, the full revelation 
of Antichrist, the preaching of the gospel for a wit- 
ness among all nations, and some others — must come 
in yet before Christ makes his appearance. 

4. Still another item that can be used against the 
preterist notion, is that, if Christ really did return 
to our earth in the destruction of Jerusalem, an 
event which occurred now nearly nineteen centuries 
ago, then it has been impossible for the great multi- 
tude of Christ's disciples to celebrate, with its full 
meaning, the ordinance known as the Lord's Sup- 
per. For in instituting that observance Jesus 
said, " This do until I come." But now, if Christ 
came so long ago, then none but the disciples 
living in or near Christ's own time, could possibly 
celebrate the ordinance with the fulness of signifi- 
cance originally connected with it, or which Christ 
commanded. 

5. Once more, the fact that according to nearly all 
the older authorities, and to the general trend of the 
latest scholarship (e. g., Harnack, Bousset, Frank C. 
Porter), the Revelation of John was published after 
the fall of Jerusalem, or about the year 95, and also 
that probably Luke's Gospel, and certainly John's 
Gospel and his First Epistle, were written after 
the year 70 — in all of which writings Christ's 
parousia was looked to as a coming event — this fact 
would seem to prove that, in the disciples' view at 



APPENDIX 127 

least, the fall of Jerusalem was by no means a 
fulfilling of the prophecy respecting our Lord's 
second coming. 

6. And now, going back to the vast predomi- 
nance of Scripture testimony which, we saw, lies not 
on the side of the preterist view, but against it ; and 
then connecting that testimony with the result of the 
various lines of argument just followed, we have, 
as our final conclusion, which is sure and strong, 
simply to say, that this entire preterist theory is 
utterly contrary to Scripture, and is therefore both 
heretical and false. 

Speaking only of Paul's description of the ad- 
vent, as given in First and Second Thessalonians, 
Dean Alford remarks: "All these preterist inter- 
pretations [which he had just described] have 
against them one fatal objection — that it is impossi- 
ble to conceive of the destruction of Jerusalem as in 
any sense corresponding to the parousia in St. Paul's 
sense of the term." (Greek Test., Vol. III., Proleg. 
on 2 Thess., Chap. VI., sec. v., par. 24.) And 
again : " The destruction of Jerusalem is inade- 
quate as an interpretation of the coming of the 
Lord here [2 Thess. 2 : 1-12]. He has not yet come 
in any sense adequate to such interpretation; there- 
fore the prophecy has yet to be fulfilled." (Ibid., 
par. 28). And if such is the case with Paul's de- 
scription, the same and even more can be said with 
regard to the New Testament representation in 
general. 



128 



THAT BLESSED HOPE 



SPECIAL REVIEW OF THEORY THAT THE PAROUSIA IS 
A PROCESS OR DISPENSATION 

A modification of the last or preterist view, which 
we have just discussed, and also an element con- 
tained in each of the two other or more spiritual 
views, is a doctrine respecting our Lord's parousia 
which may be called the continuous-historical view. 
It represents the coming of Christ to be not a single 
event, but rather a long series of events — a process 
or dispensation. 

This view seems just now to be especially popular 
with some of the so-called " advanced " theologians, 
higher-critic interpreters of the Bible, and others 
who are rationalistically inclined. The doctrine ap- 
pears to have originated either in the German ration- 
alism itself or in some branch of that kind of 
thought. In our own country it is represented by 
such men as Dr. William Newton Clarke, Dr. Wil- 
liam Adams Brown, Dr. Clarence A. Beckwith, pro- 
fessor in the Chicago Theological Seminary (Con- 
gregationalist) ; Dr. John Wright Buckham, pro- 
fessor in the Pacific Theological Seminary, and 
others, whose writings show that their authors either 
openly teach this theory or are favorably inclined 
toward it. Indeed, this doctrine seems in these times 
to be growingly popular with the classes of persons 
mentioned, particularly in the United States and 
Great Britain. On that account especially we desire 
here to give it some special notice. 



APPENDIX 1 29 

As already indicated, this doctrine teaches that 
our Lord's parousia must not be regarded as a single 
event, nor even as a few events, but rather as a 
long-continued process, beginning, as some teach, 
with the resurrection of Christ, and continuing on, 
as is the common notion, down through the pente- 
costal gift of the Holy Spirit, the destruction of 
Jerusalem, and many other like events, even to the 
end of time. Nay, the German Professor Beyschlag 
teaches that, as a fellowship with the disciples, this 
parousia of our Lord continues even in eternity. 

Objections to the Doctrine. 1. Now looking upon 
this peculiar theory from the standpoint of the 
Scriptures and of our orthodox faith, we may say 
of it, in the first place, that it contains some truth, 
but a vastly greater amount of error. The truth 
contained in this view is especially one which we 
have already acknowledged, in our examination of 
the second of the two spiritual theories. It is that 
there is such a thing as a real spiritual coming of 
Christ. This spiritual coming began, as we under- 
stand it, with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on 
the day of Pentecost; and since then it has been 
enlarged in its manifestations, and perhaps also in 
its intensity, and has spread over all the earth, so 
that it is to-day the one great Effective Force for 
building up and extending Christ's kingdom in our 
world. This spiritual force is not only now at work, 
but will continue its operations until the end of time. 
It is, as we have said, a real second coming — or 
1 



130 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

perhaps it may be called a kind of parousia — of our 
Lord. 

But now, while we thus readily concede this much 
of truth to be embraced in the doctrine under 
consideration, or that our Lord's second coming 
may be regarded as a process, we by no means are 
willing to admit that such a doctrine contains the 
whole truth respecting the parousia. On the con- 
trary, we affirm that the most important, the most 
specific, the most scriptural truth connected with 
any correct theory of our Lord's return from heaven 
is that when he comes it will be in literal, personal, 
and visible form. He will not return in merely a 
dispensation of the truth, nor in the power and dem- 
onstration of the Spirit, nor by such judicial events 
as was the overthrow of ancient Jerusalem; but it 
will be in his own personality. The same Jesus 
who ascended to heaven will return, and in the same 
manner as he ascended — that is, with his full glori- 
fied personal being. This is the doctrine taught 
everywhere in Scripture — to some extent even in 
the Old Testament, but much more fully in the New. 
We have already given the Scripture proofs of this 
doctrine (see especially pp. 34, 35 in main part 
of book), consequently they need not be repeated 
here. We will only say that in the original 
Greek the word Trapouala, translated usually, in 
our English Scriptures, " coming " or " presence," 
means, when applied to a person, that he is now 
present in contradistinction to his having been 



APPENDIX 1 3 I 

absent ; and as used in the New Testament, Prof. J. 
H. Thayer says, in his Greek-English Lexicon, that 
it means " the future visible return from heaven of 
Jesus the Messiah." It is, indeed, a kind of techni- 
cal term that seems to have been coined very early 
by the disciples for the express purpose of setting 
forth their conception of what our Lord's return 
would be. It would be a parousia — that is, a " pres- 
ence " in our world of the Saviour who had before 
been absent. 

This is our understanding of what is the Scrip- 
ture idea of Christ's second coming; and if we are 
correct, then of course, the other doctrine which 
teaches that Christ's coming is only a spiritual 
process or a succession of Messianic judgments upon 
the world, must be rejected as incorrect, or false. 

2. This is, then, our first objection to the doctrine 
under consideration. A second objection is that, in 
the Scriptures everywhere Christ's parousia is rep- 
resented to be, not a process, but a single event. 
In proof of this we call attention to all those Scrip- 
ture passages which give us to understand that the 
second coming of Christ will occur but once. Only 
once do we read will the Lord descend from heaven, 
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, etc.; 
only once will he sit upon the throne of his glory, 
and all the nations be gathered before him; and 
only once will he distribute his rewards and penalties 
to every man, according as his works have been. 
Furthermore, we may say, the Scriptures set definite 



132 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

bounds both before and after our Lord's parousia. 
Before that event there will take place a universal 
preaching of the gospel among the nations, a tread- 
ing down of Jerusalem by the Gentiles until the 
time of the Gentiles is fulfilled, and still other 
occurrences; and after the parousia, or immedi- 
ately in connection with it, there will take place 
the resurrection of the dead, the general judg- 
ment, and other extraordinary matters. Christ's 
parousia is, therefore, in Scripture prophecy, 
bounded by events coming both before and after it ; 
and it is thus definitely fixed as an event in time. 
And still more definitely in time is the parousia 
fixed by those Scripture teachings which represent 
the final coming of our Lord as taking place, not 
in a long period, but in a " day," an " hour," or 
suddenly, like the lightning, which, shining in the 
east, is immediately seen in the uttermost part of 
heaven; or the coming of Christ is compared to a 
thief stealing upon a person unexpectedly in the 
night; or it is like travail coming upon a woman 
with child. In these various illustrations the idea 
is very evident, that our Lord's second coming will 
be an event more or less instantaneous in its char- 
acter, and therefore that it is impossible to conceive 
of it as a process, or an event protracted through 
an indefinitely long period. 

3. Still another argument that can be easily made 
against this continuous-historical view is that in 
various passages of Scripture Christ's abode is 



APPENDIX 133 

represented to be now in heaven ; whereas if the spir- 
itual-process theory is correct, that abode should be 
now on the earth — at least as literally as it is in 
heaven. " Whom the heaven must receive," says 
Peter, " until the times of the restitution of all 
things " ; and since that restitution has not yet oc- 
curred, to be sure, Christ must be regarded as still 
in heaven — in heaven both in a bodily and spiritual 
sense. Certainly he cannot be at the same time and 
in a bodily sense both on earth and in heaven. 

4. But perhaps our most conclusive argument 
against this theory of Christ's parousia being a long 
process is that in various passages of Scripture the 
second coming is represented to be an event that 
will not occur until the end of time. In John 
6 : 44 Jesus says : " No man can come to me, except 
the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will 
raise him up at the last day." And again in John 
12 : 48 he says : " He that rejecteth me . . . hath 
one that judgeth him ; the word that I have spoken, 
the same shall judge him in the last day." From 
these two passages of Scripture it is very evident 
that both the general judgment and the resurrec- 
tion of the dead shall occur at the last day; and in 
other Scriptures which we have already in other 
places quoted (see e. g., pp. 38, 39, in main part of 
book) it is clearly taught that these two events, the 
resurrection and the general judgment, shall take 
place coincidentally with our Lord's second coming. 
Consequently the inference is inevitable that Christ's 



134 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

parousia also shall occur, as do the resurrection 
and the general judgment, " at the last day"; and 
therefore, as said, this parousia will not take place 
before the end of the world. If that is so, then 
the continuous-historical theory, which represents 
the parousia to have commenced away back in the 
past, and to be now going forward as a process, 
must certainly be wrong. 

Moreover, in this connection we desire yet to 
examine an affirmation often made, that the phrase 
" end of the world," or " last day/' does not mean 
a real termination of all things earthly, or the end- 
ing of time, but only the end of the age, or more 
particularly, the end of the Jewish age, as the mat- 
ter is often worded. By referring to I Peter 4 : 7 
the reader will notice that the Apostle Peter uses 
this expression, " The end of all things is at hand " ; 
and then, by turning over to 2 Peter, last chapter, he 
will see what the apostle means by that expression. 
For in this chapter Peter describes a real termina- 
tion of all things earthly, in the form of a great 
conflagration, which shall melt and dissolve even 
" the elements " themselves ; and then out of this 
conflagration, Peter affirms, there will emerge 
" new heavens and a new earth." So also Paul, in 
1 Cor. 15 : 23-28, teaches that the great final con- 
summation of all things is what should be under- 
stood as being the end of the world. For in ver. 
23 of this same chapter it reads : " Christ the first- 
fruits (of the resurrection), afterward they that are 



APPENDIX 135 

Christ's at his coming." And in the next verse it 
reads, " Then comet h the end, when he (that is, 
Christ) shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even 
the Father," after having put down all rule and 
all authority, and even having, at the resurrec- 
tion, destroyed death itself. Very evidently, then, 
both with Paul and Peter the phrase " end of the 
world," or what is the same thing, " the end of all 
things," or simply " the end," does not mean, as 
some of the interpreters say, only the ending of an 
age, or more particularly, of the Jewish or Old 
Testament dispensation; but it surely means some- 
thing far different. As Paul and Peter use this 
phrase, it can signify nothing else than the great 
consummation of all things, the final dissolution of 
nature and the appearing of a new heaven and a 
new earth; and if that is so, then of course the in- 
terpretation which makes the phrase mean only the 
ending of a certain age, or period in the world's 
history, must be incorrect. 

As a practical conclusion we will yet remark that 
there is not much hope for man in any of these 
merely rationalistic doctrines respecting our Lord's 
second coming. For it is not consistent with the 
teachings of any of those doctrines to furnish con- 
ditions such as must necessarily banish sin and sor- 
row completely from our world. On the contrary, 
according to the teachings of these rationalistic 
views, sin and sorrow, death and many other evils, 
as connected with a material universe, still remain, 



I36 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

despite all the triumphs and future achievements 
which may be expected of the gospel of Christ. 
With such a prospect put before man, therefore, he 
surely cannot entertain, with respect to the future, 
a very inviting hope. At the most, he can only 
anticipate a world growing, for an indefinite period, 
somewhat better than it is now. But the material 
and sinful conditions of this life, which produce all 
our misery, are never fully abolished, according to 
the teachings of rationalistic theories. On the other 
hand, with our old orthodox or fully scriptural 
view of Christ's second coming, these evil conditions 
of sin and of a material universe are all banished; 
and instead of a material world with sin and sorrow 
in it, the orthodox view gives us, as our future 
abode, a new spiritual world, in which sin and sor- 
row and all other evils are utterly unknown; but 
where God shall wipe away all tears from human 
eyes, and where there shall be " no more death, 
neither sorrow, nor crying, nor any more pain," be- 
cause all the evil conditions of human life have for- 
ever passed away. Then, moreover, Christ with all 
his saints in heaven and his saints on earth, will 
form a reunion, in the perfected kingdom of God, 
that shall last eternally. 

Such is the picture which the old orthodox or 
truly scriptural theory of our Lord's second com- 
ing puts before the entire human race; and it does 
not need any special comparison of this view with 
others to establish the conviction that of all theories 



APPENDIX 13; 

known to man respecting the end of the world, or 
Christ's second coming, this one is incomparably 
the most attractive, the most inviting, and the fullest 
of hope. Let us, therefore, hold fast to this theory, 
lest by being deprived of it we lose also, really, the 
chiefest pearl among our expectations as to the 
future. For the hope of the second coming of 
Christ is, as Paul affirms, " blessed " in its nature, 
as his real personal appearing is also " glorious " in 
its form. 

TOPIC B 

WERE THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS MISTAKEN? 

Whether in their expectation of an early return 
of the Saviour from heaven the apostles and evan- 
gelists were mistaken, is a question that can, per- 
haps, be answered either Yes or No. If only the 
earlier beliefs of those disciples are taken into con- 
sideration ; and if, moreover, attention is given only 
to individual expressions of this or that writer in 
the New Testament, it will not be difficult to con- 
clude that these followers of Christ expected him to 
return very soon, perhaps within their own life- 
time; and therefore, since he did not come during 
that period, they certainly were mistaken. But if, 
on the other hand, a more general examination is 
made of those early testimonies respecting our 
Lord's parousia, taking into account not only the 
first, but also later expressions of the disciples, it 



I38 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

will be found, the writer thinks, that, after all, these 
disciples cannot so surely be accused of committing 
mistake. 

One thing is certain, which is that the early church 
in general most confidently believed in a literal re- 
turn of Christ. They had no idea of any figurative, 
providential, or judicial coming, such as has been ad- 
vocated by some modern interpreters. To them the 
coming again of their Lord to the earth, was as real 
and positive an event as was his going to heaven. 
He would come, they believed, " in like manner 
even as he was taken up." There existed therefore 
no uncertainty in the belief of the evangelists and 
apostles, so far as the real, personal, literal, and 
future coming of their Lord was concerned. 

But now, when we go further and undertake to 
decide what the general expectation of those early 
disciples was relative to the time of Christ's com- 
ing — whether it should be earlier or later — a diffi- 
culty here immediately presents itself. It is the fact 
that the documents at hand do not seem to be, in 
their notices, sufficient to relieve the matter of all 
uncertainty. The most that can be said, we think, 
is that representative men among the early disciples, 
such as Paul and Peter, did not always entertain 
precisely the same view relative to the time of our 
Lord's parousia. For instance, Paul, in writing to 
the Thessalonians and Corinthians, seemed to have 
held the idea that he himself would live to see the 
Lord descending from the skies ; for he says in his 



APPENDIX 139 

first Thessalonian letter, " then we which are alive 
shall be caught up," etc. (chap. 4 : 17) — evidently 
expecting to be himself among the living at that 
time. So also in his first letter to the Corinthians 
(15 : 51) he expresses the notion that he, with 
the Corinthian brethren in general, would be still 
alive when Christ came ; for he says " we shall not 
all sleep, but we shall all be changed," etc. But 
then, later in the experiences of this apostle, he 
seems to have considerably changed his view as to 
an early coming of Christ. For already in his sec- 
ond letter to the Thessalonians he positively affirms 
that the day of Christ's return would not come, 
"except there come a falling away first" (2 : 3) ; 
and then he proceeds to describe a great and 
wide-reaching apostasy which, he declares, must 
take place before the parousia of Christ. Paul's 
notion, therefore, at this time, seems to have altered 
considerably; or at least, he then thought that 
Christ's return was a matter not to be expected until 
after the expiration of what would seem to be even 
a long period of time. Then again, if we turn 
to Paul's second letter to Timothy (4 : 6-8), 
where the apostle describes his expectation as 
to the future, we can easily see that he no longer 
hopes to live until the return of his Master; for he 
writes : " I am now ready to be offered, and the 
time of my departure is at hand. Henceforth "— 
says he ; not yet, but henceforth — " there is laid up 
for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord 



140 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

will give me at that day " — his outlook now being 
evidently toward a somewhat distant future for 
Christ's coming. Our conclusion, then, is that the 
great apostle to the Gentiles went to his death, or 
execution, without the comforting hope, which he 
had previously indulged, of living to see his Lord 
returning in power and glory from heaven. 

So, also, if we now turn to the writings of the 
Apostle Peter, and consult them as to this same mat- 
ter of the expectation of Christ's early return, we 
shall find — whatever may have been his earlier 
views on the topic ; and he seems in his first letter to 
have expected that " the end of all things was at 
hand" — yet in his maturer beliefs (2 Pet. 3:8) it 
appeared to him that " one day with the Lord is as 
a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day " ; 
which expression would seem to signify that, in 
Peters' view, the coming of the Lord was an event 
that might be deferred for some considerable time. 

Gathering up, therefore, all the evidence we have 
been able to examine relative to the topic under con- 
sideration, we come to what we think to be two 
legitimate conclusions. (1) The first one is that 
the apostles and evangelists did not have any defi- 
nitely fixed and unchanging opinion with regard to 
the exact time of Christ's parousia. Sometimes, and 
especially during the period of their earlier experi- 
ences, they indulged the hope, common to the 
church of that day, that Christ would come very 
soon, perhaps within their own lifetime. But this 



APPENDIX 141 

hope was not strong nor enduring; it vacillated be- 
tween the expectation of an earlier and a later com- 
ing. Accordingly we may say, that such being the 
uncertain state of their belief, they were not really 
mistaken in their expectation. 

(2) But now, on the other hand, if we notice 
only some of the individual expressions of those 
apostles and evangelists, and especially if we con- 
fine attention to the seemingly firm belief existing 
in all the early Christian church as to a speedy re- 
turn of Christ, we cannot well avoid the conclusion 
that both the church and the apostles with the evan- 
gelists were mistaken in expecting the Lord's return 
so soon. Perhaps, though, even the apostles and 
evangelists were not fully inspired as to every 
matter of faith. (See 1 Cor. 7 : 10-12. ) x 

TOPIC C 

THE TWO RESURRECTIONS 

Besides what has been said in the body of this 
work and in the foot-notes, respecting the two 

1 A common view taken in these times by many interpreters is that 
the apostles and evangelists, with the early church, were all mistaken 
in their confident expectation of a speedy return of Christ. The 
disciples, it is affirmed, misunderstood or misreported the words of 
Jesus on eschatological matters; and so, while the correctness of the 
Saviour's foreknowledge is preserved to him, the wisdom as well as 
the moral character of his disciples is not left so wholly unaffected. 
But a difficulty with this notion is that Christ, knowing all about 
the shortcomings of his disciples, should not at least have undertaken 
to correct their views, especially on so important a topic as his 
parousia. 



142 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

resurrections, we desire here only to add a few 
quotations from representative authors : 

First, On the Pre-millennial Side. Dean Henry 
Alford (" Com. on Greek Test.," Vol. IV., p. 732) : 
" It will have been long ago anticipated by the read- 
ers of this Commentary, that I cannot consent to dis- 
tort words from their plain sense and chronological 
place in the prophecy [Rev. 20:4], on account of 
any considerations of difficulty, or any risk of abuses 
which the doctrine of the millennium may bring with 
it. Those who lived next to the apostles, and the 
whole church for three hundred years understood 
them in the plain, literal sense; and it is a strange 
sight in these days to see expositors who are 
amongst the first in reverence of antiquity, com- 
placently casting aside the most cogent instance of 
consensus which primitive antiquity presents. As 
regards the text itself, no legitimate treatment of it 
will extort what is known as the spiritual inter- 
pretation now in fashion. If in a passage where 
two resurrections are mentioned, where certain 
<po%al i^rjoav ["souls lived"] at the first, and the 
rest of the vexpol i^yoav ["dead lived"] only at 
the end of a special period after the first — if in 
such a passage the first resurrection may be under- 
stood to mean spiritual rising with Christ, while the 
second means literal rising from the grave, then 
there is an end to all significance in language, and 
Scripture is wiped out as a definite testimony to 
anything. If the first resurrection is spiritual, 



APPENDIX 143 

then so is the second, which I suppose none will 
be hardy enough to maintain; but if the second 
is literal, then so is the first, which in common with 
the whole primitive church and many of the best 
modern expositors, I do maintain, and receive as an 
article of faith and hope." 

Secondly, On the Post-millennial Side. Rev. 
David Brown ("The Second Advent, Will It Be 
Pre-millennial ? " pp. 218-259. Mr. Brown's argu- 
ment is so extensive, we can give here only a con- 
densed summary of its leading points) : 

Nine Internal Evidences that the Millennial Res- 
urrection is Not Literal, but Figurative. 1. If the 
first resurrection mean rising from the grave in 
immortal and glorified bodies, the assurance that 
on such the second death hath no power (v. 6), or, 
in other words, that the raised ones shall not perish 
everlastingly, would seem to be superfluous. 

2. There are but two alternatives in the prophecy 
— either to " have part in the first resurrection," or 
to be " under the power of the second death." Into 
which of these two classes are we to put the myriads 
of men who are to people the earth, in flesh and 
blood, during the millennium? 

3. The expression of how long this life and reign 
with Christ will last, viz., a thousand years, if meant 
to inform us what a long period of earthly prosperity 
the church is yet destined to enjoy, is intelligible 
and cheering. But to say that the risen and glori- 
fied church is to live and reign with Christ for a 



144 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

period of one thousand years, is totally unlike the 
language of Scripture in every other place. 

4. By making the party that shall live and reign 
with Christ a thousand years to be the entire church 
of God risen from their graves, we encounter two 
exegetical difficulties — first, there is no time given 
in this passage for a second resurrection, inasmuch 
as directly after the millennium Satan is represented 
to be during " a little season," which may last for a 
century or so, engaged in deceiving the nations and 
making his assault upon " the beloved city." And 
second, none but the wicked would remain to be 
judged in the last judgment, which is inconsistent 
with the implication of the opening of the book of 
life (v. 12). 

5. (Given by Mr. Brown in the words of Gipps.) 
The opening of the book of life must be under- 
stood to signify the manifestation of those who are 
written in it. But according to Rom. 8 : 19-23, 
this manifestation of the " sons of God " takes 
place when they rise from the grave. Consequently 
the resurrection of the saints must occur at the time 
of the judgment, after the millennium, and not be- 
fore it as is represented by the literal theory. 

6. (Also given in Mr. Gipps* language.) The 
omission of any declaration as to the sea, death, and 
the grave (or hades) giving up the dead at the first 
resurrection, and the making of such a declaration 
respecting the " dead " in ver. 13, convinces me that 
the first resurrection is not of the saints, and also 



APPENDIX 145 

that the " dead " in ver. 12 include all mankind, 
both the saints and the ungodly. For this is most 
in accordance with the general Scripture method, 
which always gives more definite and full informa- 
tion respecting the resurrection of the righteous 
than of the wicked. 

7. The clause, " This is the first resurrection " 
(ver. 5), which is thought to prove it literal, seems 
to me to prove the reverse. For in Rev. 2:11 fidel- 
ity to Christ even unto death is represented as the 
ground of exemption (of course, not the meritorious 
ground) from "the second death," and since in the 
passage before us (ver. 6) the first resurrection is 
represented as being in like manner such ground of 
exemption, therefore it would seem reasonable to 
understand these two expressions as equivalent, and 
hence that a certain line of conduct, or character in 
the present life, is what is meant to be the exempting 
cause connected with the first resurrection. This 
resurrection must, therefore, be figurative in its 
nature, not literal. 

8. It is a fatal objection to the literal sense of 
this prophecy, as announcing the bodily resurrec- 
tion of all the dead, and the changing of all living 
saints, that it is exclusively a martyr scene — the 
prophet beholding simply a resurrection of the 
slain; whereas this very circumstance favors the 
figurative sense. The literal sense is utterly inade- 
quate to express the resurrection of the whole 
church of God bodily from the grave. 

K 



I46 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

9. The literal sense offers no consistent explana- 
tion of the judgment that was given unto the slain 
martyrs. If such judgment is to be given unto 
them personally at the millennium, and they are to 
rise from the grave for that purpose, then their per- 
secutors, upon whom the judgment is to be ren- 
dered, must also be raised at the same time. 

Thirdly, On the Side of a Belief in Two Resur- 
rections, but with a Limitation of the First to a 
Certain Class of the Saints. Moses Stuart (" Com. 
on the Apocalypse," Vol. II., pp. 475, 476) : " The 
point of antithesis which seems to decide the whole 
case is, as is remarked in the Commentary, the dis- 
tinction between the first resurrection and the sec- 
ond. It appears to be a distinction of order of suc- 
cession, but not of kind. There is indeed one other 
particular of difference or contrast, viz., the second 
resurrection will be general, universal, comprehend- 
ing both the righteous and the wicked, while the first 
will comprehend, as the writer's language seems to 
intimate, only saints and martyrs, who have been 
specially faithful unto death. This distinction the 
writer has made prominent. He expressly assures 
us that the other dead would not be raised when the 
one thousand years should commence, but only at 
the end of the world when all will be raised. The 
express contrast here made between the particular 
and the general resurrection, and the manner in 
which this contrast is presented, show that the de- 
sign is not to compare a spiritual with a physical 



APPENDIX 147 

resurrection, but to contrast the partial extent of the 
latter at the beginning of the millennium, with the 
general or universal extent at the end of the world." 
As is known among students of eschatology, Pro- 
fessor Stuart locates the scene of the saints reigning 
with Christ, not on earth, but in heaven; and his 
argument is that heaven is everywhere represented 
in the Scriptures as the abiding-place of " souls " or 
departed saints, and this is also Christ's place of 
abode. Consequently, the location of this thousand 
years' reign must be in heaven. 



TOPIC D 

MILLENNIAL THEORIES AND DIFFICULTIES 

I. Theories. 1. The oldest theory of the mil- 
lennium is one that seems to have come into Chris- 
tian acceptance from old Jewish apocalypses, some 
of which are known to have existed even before the 
Christian era. The idea was intimately connected 
with that of the Jewish Sabbath, regarded as an 
institution intended to celebrate the resting of God 
after the six days of creative work. Accordingly 
the reasoning was that as God was six days in crea- 
ting the world, and as he rested on the seventh day, 
and moreover, since one day with the Lord is as a 
thousand years, therefore by a kind of analogy it 
follows that, after six thousand years of human 
labor and toil, there will be another thousand years 



14^ 



THAT BLESSED HOPE 



of Sabbath rest. This idea, at least in part, John 
seems to have appropriated in his Revelation; but 
whether he so did or not, it very early made its ap- 
pearance in Christian history. Moreover, whether 
owing to Christian or Jewish influences, the spiritual 
character of this idea degenerated quite early into 
what is usually termed chiliasm, or a gross material- 
istic and carnal notion of the thousand years. Pa- 
pias, e. g., and some other of the ancient Christian 
Fathers conceived of the period as characterized by 
great fertility of nature ; also as a time of eating and 
drinking, of continued marriage festivity, and of un- 
told riches. Hence the entire notion ran easily into 
excesses, and finally, after a couple of hundred years, 
it came into great disrepute, and was replaced by 
another view, of quite different character. 

2. This succeeding view has usually been 
termed the Augustinian theory of the millennium; 
and it teaches that Christ's reign of a thousand years 
is simply his church, or the kingdom of God in our 
world, and that it began its history with the birth 
of our Saviour, or the setting up of Christ's king- 
dom in human hearts and lives. With some few 
modifications, this was the reigning view all through 
the Middle Ages. 

3. But another theory, quite similar to this, 
made its appearance in the eighteenth century, and 
was advocated especially by Grotius and Hammond. 
Its peculiarity is that it represents the millennium 
more as an organization or polity, beginning its 



APPENDIX 149 

history with the reign of Constantine the Great, and 
ending with the assault made upon Christendom, in 
the fourteenth century, by the Ottoman Turks. 

4. But all through the Middle Ages, as said, 
the prevalent view was the one propounded by Au- 
gustine. Then after this middle period there seems 
to have existed much opposition against the idea 
of any millennium, most of the reformers assum- 
ing toward such notion an antagonistic attitude. 
But, as before in the early Christian times, so now 
again a quite new or novel idea of the thousand 
years presented itself. It was that the reign of the 
saints with Christ signifies only some new church 
organization; which idea, we might observe, was, 
during Reformation times, exploited most fanati- 
cally and discreditably by some of the Anabaptists 
at Minister ; and since then it has, in various forms, 
appeared among the Swedenborgians, the Irvingites, 
the Mormons, and various other religious sects. 

5. Some sixty years ago there was put forward 
by Moses Stuart, professor of theology at Andover, 
a singular theory of the millennium, which took 
the view that the saints reigning with the Saviour 
during the thousand years were only certain mar- 
tyrs and faithful believers whose bodies were raised 
by special privilege, and that the scene of this reign 
was not on earth, but in heaven. This is, to say the 
least, a singular view. 

6 and 7. But the two most prominent theories of 
the millennium which are of interest to us in these 



150 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

times are those we have already discussed in the 
main body of this work — namely, pre-millennial- 
ism and post-millennialism — and therefore they 
need not be, again, here described. 

II. Difficulties. Whatever views, though, are taken 
respecting the reign of Christ with his saints for a 
thousand years, there are unavoidable difficulties 
connected with the general subject. This arises 
from two causes. First, the description given us, in 
the twentieth chapter of Revelation, of Christ's mil- 
lennial reign, is not altogether clear. And then, 
second, in all the rest of the Bible, except that one 
passage, there is no mention made of any millennial 
reign of the Saviour; but in all these other Scrip- 
tures the usual view taken is that Christ's kingdom 
will be perpetual or last forever. Besides, accord- 
ing to the pre-millennial interpretation of Rev. 20: 
4-6, Christ's reign, being on the earth or in 
connection with this material world, is certainly 
more materialistic in nature than is the usual repre- 
sentation given elsewhere in the Bible. Conse- 
quently it would seem that the difficulties under con- 
sideration are really inherent in the general subject 
of the millennium, and therefore it is not very won- 
derful that different interpreters, such as pre-millen- 
nialists and post-millennialists, have taken views so 
widely different. 

In our interpretation of the matter, therefore, we, 
first of all, acknowledge these difficulties as actually 
existing — difficulties connected, we may say, not 



APPENDIX 151 

only with the different interpretations of the millen- 
nium, but seemingly inherent in the very subject 
itself; and then, having done this, we have really 
prepared the way for a solution of the trouble. It 
is merely to regard the thousand years' reign as 
something mysterious and inscrutable, or as a mat- 
ter that, with our present knowledge of it, cannot 
be fully and satisfactorily explained. Hence, our 
method is to leave the millennium, at least in great 
part, out of the general discussion. Doing that, we 
have no great difficulty in treating either the thou- 
sand years' reign or the whole subject of Christ's 
second coming. 

ADVANTAGES OF OUR METHOD 

The advantages of this peculiar way of disposing 
of the millennium are varied, and may be indicated 
as follows: 

1. This method enables one to construct, from 
other Scripture passages than Rev. 20 : 4-6, 1 a 
full, definite, and consistent doctrine of our Lord's 
second coming, a doctrine that neither conflicts with 
general Scripture testimony nor with any clear and 
undisputed passage of revelation. Besides, it is a 
doctrine that both encourages hope and is free from 
all tendency to fanaticism. 

2. This method, with its exegetical results, is 



1 The entire millennial passage may be regarded as including 
ver. 1-8. 



152 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

amply supported by Scripture; the entire Bible be- 
ing on its side, and the only Scripture that can be 
quoted against it being those few verses in Rev. 20, 
But even this one diminutive passage is not wholly 
set aside or in any way ignored by our method ; it is 
only, as said, treated as a mystery, for the full and 
satisfactory interpretation of which we have at pres- 
ent no sufficient means. Besides, should any one, ac- 
cepting our general view, desire also to hold fast to 
some notion of a millennium, he can do even this, 
provided he first modifies somewhat the extraordi- 
nary glories usually connected with the post-millen- 
nial conception of Christ's millennial reign. 

3. All the peculiar duties connected with a true or 
really Scriptural doctrine of our Lord's final com- 
ing are provided for by this method. For leaving 
out of consideration the whole difficult matter of the 
millennium, the believer can now very easily be al- 
ways on the watch for his Master's coming ; while at 
the same time this general view both encourages 
hope and stimulates missionary undertaking, both 
at home and abroad, if so be that thus the world may 
be got ready for our Lord's return. 



TOPIC E 

WHO, OR WHAT, IS ANTICHRIST? 

The " Edinburgh Encyclopedia " gives fourteen 
different theories as to who or what the antichristian 



APPENDIX 153 

power mentioned or referred to quite a number of 
times in the Bible, and known as Antichrist, is to be 
understood as being, or as having been, or as still 
to be in the future. One theory, which is very old — 
dating back before the coming of Christ — is that the 
" king of fierce countenance " mentioned in Daniel, 
or Antiochus Epiphanes, was, because of his pecu- 
liar character and his persecutions especially of the 
Jews, the real Antichrist of the ancient times. 
Other views, which locate the opposing power more 
in later days or still in the future, are that by Anti- 
christ we are to understand the tyrant Nero, or 
Domitian, or Julian, or the pagan priests, or some 
of the rebel leaders of the Jews, or the Jewish peo- 
ple themselves ; or Mohammed ; or Romanism, some 
of the individual popes ; Napoleon I., or III. ; Oliver 
Cromwell; some person or principle, perhaps, not 
yet fully revealed ; or as Catholic authorities would 
have us believe, even Martin Luther or John Calvin ! 

The prevailing notion among most scholars who 
have given attention to the matter is that this power 
of opposition to the gospel of Christ, is either an 
institution or a person; and if an institution, then 
it must be, in character, either civil or ecclesiastical, 
or perhaps both. 

Another view, however, which has been taken 
mostly in later times, is that this opposing power is 
neither an institution nor a person, but only a prin- 
ciple, a spirit working through the ages, or perhaps 
manifesting itself at different times — a tendency of 



154 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

things, which, because of its inimical attitude toward 
Christ and his gospel, is properly denominated the 
Antichrist. This theory would seem to be in har- 
mony with what Paul says of that " mystery of in- 
iquity " which was in his day already working ; also 
it accords with what John tells us about the spirit 
of Antichrist. " This is the spirit of antichrist," 
he says, " of which ye have heard." " There are 
many antichrists." " He is antichrist which de- 
nieth the Father and the Son." ( i John 4 : 3 ; 2 : 18, 
22.) 

But still another theory is that the Antichrist has 
not yet made his appearance, but his manifestation 
belongs to the future. When he comes — and the 
usual notion taken by adherents of this view is that 
Antichrist is to be a person — he will concentrate in 
himself all the powers of hate and opposition to the 
gospel of Christ, and become the leader in that final 
assault upon Christianity which is described in ver. 
7-10 of Rev. 20. 

Now, with so many views obtaining at different 
times among expositors, or people in general, and 
with the utter impossibility, as it would seem, of 
reconciling these different notions as to the histori- 
cal identity or peculiar character of the Antichrist 
pictured in the Bible, of course it is not within the 
competency or purpose of this treatise to decide, 
dogmatically or otherwise, which of those theories is 
correct or most in accordance with biblical indica- 
tions. We can only say that in selecting the Romish 



APPENDIX 155 

Church, or more especially the papacy in its civil and 
ecclesiastical aspects, as the fullest expression of the 
antichristian principle that our world has probably 
ever seen, or will see, we have only followed com- 
mon Protestant opinion. To be sure in later times 
Protestant scholars have been inclined to take a 
more lenient view of the matter, and to consider the 
papacy as not so unchristian an institution after all. 
Still even among these more liberalistic scholars very 
few, we apprehend, can be found who are unwilling 
to admit that at least the papal idea is involved to 
some extent in the descriptions given by the Bible, 
of that great apostatized and persecuting power 
which should at some time make its appearance dur- 
ing the history of Christianity. 

Even Gregory the Great, the first pope, said that 
any man who should arrogate to himself the title of 
" universal bishop " would be " the precursor of 
Antichrist." And Dr. Charles Hodge, after calling 
attention to the monstrous and unparalleled claims 
made by the popes — to being Christ's vicar on earth, 
and therefore as having authority over all human- 
kind both in matters of faith and even in civil gov- 
ernment; also as having power to forgive sin, re- 
lease souls from purgatory, or condemn men to eter- 
nal perdition — remarks that " if such pretensions 
do not constitute the power which make them Anti- 
christ, then nothing remains. Any future Anti- 
christ that may arise must be a small affair com- 
pared to the papacy." 



I56 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

Any number of quotations could be made from 
Protestant authorities, and not a few from Roman- 
ists, showing that such views are not uncommon, 
but that all the way down from early in the Middle 
Ages there have been some, and during Protestant 
times many, who have taken the view that the pope, 
or the papal system, is Antichrist. The view pre- 
sented in this book is, therefore, we think, supported 
by a wider consensus of opinion than has been any 
other. 1 

TOPIC F 

GOG AND MAGOG, OR THE LAST GREAT BATTLE 

Running through a large part of the Apocalypse, 
or at least found in three particular places, there 
seems to be intimation of coming political trouble, 
to take place in the East. For instance, in the ninth 
chapter, from ver. 13 to 21, there is given us, in con- 
nection with the sounding of the sixth trumpet, the 
prophecy of a great invasion to be made, seemingly 
into Western countries, by different nations whose 
" angels," or leaders, are bound " at the great river 
Euphrates." Just what nations these are, it is, of 
course, difficult to tell, but they have been often 
supposed to represent the Mohammedan or Turkish 

1 Even so considerate a writer as Dr. A. J. Gordon says (in his 
" Ecce Venit," p. 127) : " We may as certainly hold the papacy 
to be the fulfilment of Paul's prediction of the Antichrist as we 
hold the fact of a coin to be the fulfilment of the die in which 
it was struck." 



APPENDIX 157 

power. Then again, in chapter 16, from ver. 12 
to 16, where there is given an account of the 
pouring-out of the sixth vial, and of its results, it is 
said that the great river Euphrates again was par- 
ticularly affected ; and one special result of that out- 
pouring was that the river was " dried up/' so 
as to prepare a way for " the kings of the East " ; 
and it is further stated that there occurred, in this 
connection, an extraordinary battle in a " place 
called Armageddon." Once more, in the last part 
of the twentieth chapter of this same book of Reve- 
lation, there is given a prophecy, to which the head- 
ing of this article especially alludes, of another great 
battle called the war with Gog and Magog, or a 
prolonged struggle with certain strange barbarian 
nations living away off somewhere in the East, to 
which these names are prophetically applied. Now 
again, just what nations are intended to be specified 
by these peculiar names it is perhaps impossible for 
any one in this day to tell. But the terms Gog and 
Magog seem to be used in the Bible a number of 
times (Ezek. chap. 38, 39; also Gen. 10: 2) to repre- 
sent strange, more or less unknown barbarous peo- 
ples, whose habitation was somewhere off to the 
northeast of the Caucasus mountains. In ancient 
secular history they are sometimes associated with 
the Scythians; or at least, Herodotus affirms that 
the Scythians were descended from Magog. Vari- 
ous modern authors are of the opinion that those old 
terms represent really the ancestors of the present 



I5B THAT BLESSED HOPE 

Muscovite or Russian people ; and if that is so, then 
this fact adds peculiar interest to the prophecy 
under consideration. 

For this battle of Gog and Magog, or rather with 
those peoples, of which we have a picture given us 
in the last part of Rev. 20, is undoubtedly not 
merely an imaginary affair, but some occurrence, 
which is yet to take place in the history of our 
world, just before the final coming of Christ. 1 
However, whether this occurrence is to be a politi- 
cal one, or rather one in which spiritual forces shall 
be especially exercised, the prophetic indications 
given are not sufficient to determine. Probably, 
though, as is always the case in great religious con- 
tests, political affairs will be more or less involved. 
Accepting that as a probable feature of the coming 
great conflict, then the question arises, what politico- 
religious contest is this which is prophesied to take 
place near the end of the world? What nations 
will be engaged in it ? And what will be the special 
issues which will at that time divide what may be 
called the forces of good and evil, in so earnest a 
struggle ? 

This question is asked by us not because we sup- 
pose that any satisfactory answer can be given to it, 

1 There is an interpretation of this battle, or war, which makes all 
the terms locating it, such as " Gog and Magog," " Armageddon " 
and " Euphrates River," to be merely symbolical, or indicative rather 
of spiritual facts than of locality or real place. But such a notion 
really destroys all the material frame-work of the war, and makes 
this last great battle something too intangible and uncertain to 
correspond with the positive indications given in Scripture. 



APPENDIX 159 

but because there seems to be some real prophetic 
interest connected with the matter, and because also 
not a few attempts have been made to answer the 
question. For instance, a number of years ago 
Lieutenant Totten, then connected with Yale Uni- 
versity as professor of military science, published 
a number of articles in a widely read journal, in 
which he undertook to prove from Scripture proph- 
ecy, as well as from natural reasonings, that a great 
politico-religious commotion among the nations was 
then imminent. All the nations of Europe, he said, 
as well as of the old world in general, would be more 
or less involved in that contest. The leaders of the 
struggle would be, on different sides, Russia and 
England. And especially Russia, fortified and pre- 
pared for aggressive war in the Caucasian moun- 
tains, and with also a great desire for the possession 
of the Holy Land, was represented by Mr. Totten as 
being at that time almost ready to break forth in 
aggressive military operations against whatever 
power might oppose her, and thus undertake to 
carry out Scripture prophecy by bringing on a great 
war in the East. The issue of that war, he further- 
more said, would be the second coming of Christ 
and an overthrow of all the hostile nations, with 
the final outcome of a setting up of Christ's kingdom 
in our world. Lieutenant Totten, being a pre-mil- 
lennialist, understands this kingdom to be only one 
that would last a thousand years, and he names 
that great final battle the " war of Armageddon " ; 



l6o THAT BLESSED HOPE 

whereas in our way of considering that battle, 
it comes after and not before the millennium, 
and hence may be called the war with Gog and 
Magog. 

But what about the battle itself? Is there any 
special reason for apprehending a great commotion 
of nations in the Eastern world, such as has been 
predicted not only by Lieutenant Totten, but by 
others — a commotion to take place, they tell us, in 
connection with the still unsettled " Eastern ques- 
tion " ? Probably no one can answer such a query 
at present. Time alone will tell. We are ready to 
commit ourself only to the assertion that such a 
coming event is not impossible, and that upon the 
horizon depicted for us in Scripture prophecy there 
does seem to be brewing some Eastern trouble ; but 
exactly what that trouble is to be, or when it will 
eventuate — on such points we have no opinion. 



TOPIC G 

THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT AND ITS BEARING UPON 
THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS 

The notion of re-peopling the Holy Land with 
descendants from its ancient inhabitants is a very 
old one. Ever since the great " dispersion " which 
took place upon the destruction of Jerusalem, there 
has been a feeling, and we may say a kind of ex- 
pectation, existing among the Jews, that at some 



APPENDIX l6l 

time their people would return and occupy the locali- 
ties once occupied by their fathers. Accordingly at 
different times during the Christian era there have 
occurred special awakenings in the interest of that 
idea, and occasionally real movements have been 
organized with a view to establishing Jewish col- 
onies in Palestine, or a settling of that country in 
some way by Israelites. Even now there are in the 
Holy Land, we are told, some thirty Jewish colonies, 
a large proportion of them having been set on foot, 
or at least encouraged in their undertaking, by 
Baron Hirsch and other charitably disposed Jews. 
Besides, there are in Palestine other Jews not be- 
longing to the colonies; so that the entire Jewish 
population of that country to-day is, as has been 
estimated, about eighty-five thousand, probably one- 
half of these living in and around Jerusalem. 

One great cause of a movement on the part of 
the Jews toward the Holy Land is the oppression 
and persecution which this people is known to have 
suffered even for ages in different countries of the 
world, and in modern times, especially in Russia, 
Silicia, Germany, and other European lands. The 
consequence has been that the Jews, as a people, 
have longed for a home of their own, or for some 
locality in which they might dwell undisturbed by 
other peoples, and where also political rights and 
privileges would be secured to them; and it is this 
idea that lies at the foundation of the whole Zionist 
movement. 



1 62 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

In the year 1896 Dr. Theodor Herzl, a resident of 
Vienna, Austria, published a book entitled " Juden- 
staat" in which he advocated the notion of the 
Jews having, in Palestine, what has often been 
termed since " a legally secured and publically recog- 
nised home" This was the beginning of the Zion- 
ist movement. Since then the movement has spread 
literally throughout the whole civilized world, mani- 
festing itself not only in the way of organizing 
multitudes of " Associations " in its interest, but 
also in holding " annual congresses " — these taking 
place, with one exception (when the congress was 
in London), at Basel, Switzerland; also making 
itself known in various other ways, such as in at- 
tempts at securing from the sultan of Turkey a char- 
ter for the possession of the Holy Land, in issuing 
a large number of pamphlets and other publications 
to advocate its cause, in establishing a " Jewish 
Colonial Trust " in London, with branches pros- 
pected or already founded elsewhere, and in still 
other procedures. Thus far, however, the move- 
ment does not seem to have accomplished much in 
the way of actually settling the Holy Land with 
Jews, or in planting colonies in Palestine, or even 
in obtaining from the sultan the charter sought. 
Still, the movement has certainly become a very ex- 
tensive one ; it is yet in progress, and no one can tell 
what its final outcome may be. 

But now, whether this agitation for a resettling of 
the Holy Land with Israelites signifies much or little 



APPENDIX I63 

as bearing upon the conversion of that people to 
Christianity, is a question that can be easily enough 
propounded, but not so easily answered. Inter- 
preters of prophecy who believe that the Jews as a 
people will surely return to Palestine, commonly be- 
lieve also in the conversion of that people to the 
Christian faith, as a matter very intimately asso- 
ciated with their going back to the land of their 
fathers. Consequently to such interpreters this 
Zionist movement signifies much; they even see in 
it a fulfilment of prophecy, and Mr. H. Grattan 
Guinness has been able, he thinks, to figure out, 
from astronomical calculations and some data given 
in the Bible, the exact time when the Zionist move- 
ment was to commence. (See his "History Un- 
veiling Prophecy," p. 368.) But to interpreters 
who do not fully believe in any return of the Jews 
as a people to Palestine the matter looks quite dif- 
ferent. To them it would seem that the Jews might 
be converted to Christianity outside of the Holy 
Land quite as well as in it; and indeed the circum- 
stances working toward such conversion would ap- 
pear to be more favorable in other lands than in 
Palestine. At all events, the Zionists themselves, or 
the leaders as well as the rank and file in that move- 
ment, have never had any idea of its being a move- 
ment in any way associated with religion, or of its 
being connected with a fulfilment of Scripture 
prophecy. But to them the movement has been, 
pure and simple, one of a nationalistic character ; its 



I64 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

purpose being, first of all, to unite the Jews, scat- 
tered throughout the world, in a common national 
sentiment, and then, secondly, by securing a home 
for these people in Palestine, or perhaps elsewhere, 
to build up eventually an independent Jewish State 
or commonwealth. Such being its declared pur- 
pose, it surely is not easy to see how a movement 
so purely nationalistic in its character is going to 
work toward the conversion of persons engaged in 
it to the Christian religion. On the contrary, the 
results so far made apparent would seem to be more 
in the way of confirming the Jewish people in their 
own religion, rather than toward inducing them to 
adopt some other faith. 

Besides, the testimony of persons living in the 
Holy Land — where there are, as has been said, quite 
a number of Jewish colonies — is to the effect that 
a gathering together of the Jews in Palestine only 
makes them the more determinedly and inconsider- 
ately opposed to all other religions, except their 
own, and especially opposed to Christianity. Mr. 
Edwin S. Wallace, who for some years recently was 
American consul in Jerusalem, says there is no place 
on earth where the wall of separation between Jew 
and Gentile is so high and strong as in that city. 
Nevertheless, even he firmly believes that " the fu- 
ture inhabitants of Palestine will be Jews " ; and 
he seems also to believe that the great body of the 
Jewish people will eventually be converted to the 
Christian faith. 



APPENDIX 165 

One thing would appear to be sure, as resulting 
already from this Zionist movement. It is that by 
it public attention has been called afresh to the 
whole subject of the Jews, and of the relation of 
that people to the Holy Land. 



TOPIC H 

PREDICTIVE PROPHECY AND THE HIGHER CRITICISM 

The usual attitude of the higher criticism toward 
what is known as predictive prophecy, is either to 
reject this element entirely from the Bible or to re- 
duce it to the narrowest possible limits ; the old ra- 
tionalistic attitude being to oppose it on the ground 
of its being miraculous. 

But surely even a miracle is possible enough on 
the supposition that God — the God of the Bible, 
possessing infinite power and wisdom — really exists. 
The matter of predictive prophecy is, therefore, so 
far as its possibility is concerned, merely a matter 
of theological demonstration — whether God exists 
or not. If he does exist, and is in any true sense the 
author of the Bible, then a divine inspiration of that 
book, such as is able to give us even a small amount 
of predictive prophecy, is equally competent to fur- 
nish also a large amount. Therefore the matter of 
the quantity of such prophecy as found in our Chris- 
tian Scriptures, and also the matter of a prophecy's 
looking distantly into the future or being confined 



1 66 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

to a nearer view, is really not to be considered in a 
discussion of whether or not the Bible contains pre- 
dictive prophecy. That is as said, first of all, a mat- 
ter of theological speculation or proof, and secondly, 
and more to a decision, it is simply a matter of fact. 
Does the Bible then contain, or does it not contain, 
prophecy of a predictive nature? By predictive 
prophecy we mean any assertion made some time 
beforehand — it may be only a short while or it may 
be centuries — that afterward comes to pass as a mat- 
ter of fact. Does the Bible then contain such proph- 
ecy? We think it does, and in very large amount. 
For instance, in the Old Testament there are many 
statements made respecting the birth of our Saviour, 
— the place where that event was to occur, the time 
when (indicated by the seventy weeks of Daniel), 
the fact that his mother was to be a virgin, and that 
he was to descend from David, and belong to the 
tribe of Judah, as well as to the family of Abraham 
and the line of Shem, and that he was also to be 
the " seed of the woman," all these and many other 
items connected with not only the birth, but the 
whole life, and even the death, burial, resurrection, 
and ascension of our Saviour, are most clearly 
prophesied in the Old Testament, and then after- 
ward fulfilled, as we have the record, in the New. 
So also respecting the history of the Jews and other 
ancient nations, and also respecting the experiences 
of various cities belonging to Old Testament times, 
and of individuals who then lived, we have in the 






APPENDIX 167 

Bible many prophecies, uttered long before the ex- 
periences or the history came to pass, and yet every 
one of those prophecies have either been already 
fiulfilled or are to-day in process of fulfilment. 

Besides, as already said, the evidence of the ful- 
filling of at least Old Testament prophecy is not 
simply the testimony of men, but of inspired author- 
ity. The New Testament itself, inspired as we be- 
lieve it to be of God, positively attests, in many 
places, the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy. 
For example, in Matthew's Gospel one often reads 
that some particular event came to pass " in order 
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the 
prophet," and then the Old Testament prophecy 
which the evangelist thinks was fulfilled in the event 
specified is usually quoted. Thus does not only 
Matthew, but all the evangelists, and we may say 
the entire New Testament, attest the actual fulfil- 
ment, in real fact, of many of the Old Testament 
prophecies. Those prophecies were certainly of a 
predictive nature. They actually came to pass, not- 
withstanding that they were uttered, some of them 
at least, hundreds, or even many hundreds of years 
before the time of their fulfilment. So far, there- 
fore, as Old Testament prophecy is concerned, the 
matter stands sure; it certainly was, or is, predic- 
tive in its nature. Moreover, the same thing can be 
proven true of the New Testament ; it also contains, 
as might easily be demonstrated, much predictive 
prophecy. 



1 68 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

The entire Bible, therefore, being, simply as a 
matter of fact, characterized by the possession of 
even a large amount of predictive prophecy, it is 
entirely to no purpose that either the higher criti- 
cism or any other method of Scripture interpreta- 
tion undertakes to prove the contrary. Prophecy 
of a predictive nature is just as certainly found in 
our Christian Scriptures as is, we may affirm, any 
other element. 



TOPIC I— ADDENDUM 

RECENT VIEWS AND LITERATURE CONCERNING THE 
ADVENT 

The most recent views taken of our Lord's sec- 
ond coming, especially in Germany and Great Brit- 
ain, have been largely colored by special study of 
what are known as Jewish apocalypses. Those old 
and long almost forgotten writings, treating of sub- 
jects connected with the Messiah and the end of the 
world, have been hunted up, and their peculiar terms 
of expression and extraordinary symbolism have 
been used to tone down or modify the natural sig- 
nificance of the New Testament representation of 
Christ's parousia; so that this significance is made 
to be quite different from what it would otherwise 
be. In this way it is made possible to take what 
are known as preterist or figurative views of the 
advent, and thus make our Lord's second coming 



APPENDIX 169 

to be either a past event or something having little 
or no significance connected with it. Of course, 
such views have been repelled by orthodox scholars ; 
still it must be said that thus far the rationalistic 
or destructive critical method has much too largely 
prevailed. 

However, this is not the only kind of literature 
recently produced that treats of the advent. The 
pre-millennialists have also been at work, and prob- 
ably their late literature has, in quantity, been quite 
equal to that of any other eschatological school. 

Some of the more recent publications treating of 
the advent in one way or another, which have come 
under our notice, are as follows : 

" Unfolding of the Ages," by Ford C. Ottman (published 
1905). This book professes to be written from a 
pre-millennial point of view; and it has been widely 
announced as a particularly able, exhaustive, and praise- 
worthy treatise on the whole subject of our Lord's second 
coming. We have found it to be written rather, or at 
least largely, from the standpoint of the futurists, and in 
substance it is an exposition of the book of Revelation, 
with frequent references to the prophecies of Daniel, 
which last prophecies dominate very much the special 
views taken in the book. The writer shows a wide and 
earnest study of his subject, but his notions are often 
of the wildest character. See especially what he says 
about the reviving of the Roman empire (Introd., p. xix., 
also the whole of chap. 13), the rebuilding of ancient 
Babylon (pp. 207, 237), and the pre-adamites as being 
now among the evil spirits against which, according to 
Paul, all true Christians have to wrestle (pp. 217-219). 

"History Unfolding Prophecy," by H. Grattan Guinness 



I/O THAT BLESSED HOPE 

(published 1906). This is also, and very decidedly, a 
pre-millennial publication. It is the last of Mr. Guinness' 
quite numerous works on eschatological topics, and, like 
all his other publications, it is well written and interesting. 
One of its peculiarities is, that it deals largely with pro- 
phetic numbers, astronomical calculations, and other such 
matters, not usually thought to be very reliable, but rather 
mystic in their nature. 

"The Last Things," by J. Alger Beet (published 1906). 
Doctor Beet is professor of theology in the Wesleyan Col- 
lege at Richmond, England. His views on the final estate of 
the wicked, which are given largely in this book, are not 
considered strictly sound or orthodox; but his notions 
respecting the second coming of Christ, as presented also 
in this book, are well put, and reveal much study of the 
New Testament oracles — with which, on this topic, he 
seems to be in strict accord. See also his " Manual of 
Theology" (1906). 

" The Eschatology of Jesus," by Rev. Lewis A. Muirhead, 
B. D. (published 1904). This work consists of four lec- 
tures delivered in connection with the Bruce Lectureship, 
in the United Free Church College, Glasgow, Scotland. 
Its point of view seems to be thoroughly orthodox, and 
it attempts, by quite a thorough consideration of the old 
Jewish apocalyptic literature as connected with the New 
Testament representations of our Lord's second coming, 
to solve the particular problem of the influence of that 
literature upon these representations, and also deduce 
what the author conceives to be a correct theory of Christ's 
parousia. While the work is interesting and reveals much 
thoughtful reflection as well as study in connection with 
its special topic, it after all fails to be very satisfactory, 
because its conclusions are too vague and indefinite. 

"The Apocalypse, the Antichrist, and the End," by 
J. J. Elar (published in Edinburgh, Scotland, 1906). This 
book is written from the Romanist point of view, and 



APPENDIX 171 

follows largely Bossuet and other Catholic authors. One 
peculiarity, however, of it is, that it makes the apocalyptic 
history begin, not, as Bossuet taught, with Domitian, 
but with Nero, whom it makes to be the original Anti- 
christ. But another Antichrist conceived by the author 
as best representing in these times the old antichristian 
spirit, is, strange to say, the Masonic Order! And then, 
of course, the " beloved city " which in Rev. 20 is 
assaulted by Antichrist, in the last great battle, is none 
other than the " Mother Church " at Rome ! Any theory can 
make what it pleases of apocalyptic matters, provided it 
puts into its general conception, beforehand, the very things 
it wants. 

" The Christian Doctrine of Immortality," by S. D. F. 
Salmond, D. D. (published in Edinburgh, 26. ed. 1897). 
This is a truly valuable work, discussing not only the 
immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, future 
punishment, etc., but it also treats, in a very thorough- 
going and learned manner, the whole doctrine of Christ's 
second coming. The book is a good illustration of the 
possibility of holding fast to the old or so-called "tradi- 
tional" views, and at the same time showing a proper 
regard for all the real achievements of modern scholarship. 

"St. Paul's Conception of the Last Things," by Rev. 
H. A. A. Kennedy (published, 2d ed., 1905). Mr. Kennedy 
delivered the substance of this book in a series of 
lectures under the auspices of the Cunningham Lecture- 
ship, connected with the Free Church College in Edin- 
burgh. His point of view is thoroughly orthodox, and 
his treatment of the subject shows a wide range of care- 
ful study, with considerable exercise of judicious criticism. 

Beyschlag's "New Testament Theology" (published 
first German ed. 1891, English translation, 1895). Pro- 
fessor Beyschlag takes the view that Christ's parousia is a 
process, begun at the Saviour's resurrection, and continu- 
ing in various forms of gospel triumph until the end of 



1^2 THAT BLESSED HOPE 

time, nay, as a fellowship with the disciples, lasting even 
in eternity. The author is a true German scholar and 
speculative thinker, and his views sometimes take a wide 
range, but they often come wide of the mark so far as 
orthodoxy is concerned. Dr. Bernard Weiss' " Religion 
of the New Testament," also German (Eng. Trans., 1905), 
is a more conservative work. 

Dr. Milton S. Terry's "Biblical Apocalyptics " (pub- 
lished 1898). We have already mentioned this book under 
Topic A in this appendix, and will say of it here only 
that with respect to the subject of Christ's advent, the 
author's views agree with the higher-critic or rationalistic 
notions in general. See references already made to the 
book, page 123. 

Besides the above, less extended mention might be made 
of Dr. Geo. B. Stevens' " Theology of the New Testament," 
Dr. Edw. D. Morris' "Theology of the Westminster 
Symbols," Dr. Wm. Newton Clarke's " Outline of Chris- 
tian Theology," H. H. Wendt's " Teaching of Jesus," and 
other like publications, in which the general subject of 
Christ's parousia is treated. Also we might call attention to 
quite a number of lately written articles and comments on 
eschatological topics, which can be found in " Hastings' 
Dictionary of the Bible," the " Encyclopedia Biblica," some 
of the general encyclopedias, the " Bible Commentary," the 
" International Critical Commentary," the " Cambridge 
Bible," the " Expositor's Bible," and in some of the 
magazines, e. g., " Bibliotheca Sacra," January, 1907 ; 
" Bible Student and Teacher," April, 1906. 



INDEX TO APPENDIX 

TREATING OF VARIOUS RELATED TOPICS 
Explanatory Note 113 



PAGE 



TOPIC A 

NEW-THEOLOGY AND RATIONALISTIC VIEWS OF THE ADVENT 

I. The Older Spiritual or Unitarian View. 

1. Contrary to Scripture Representation 

(a) Because the advent is to be literal and 115 

personal 

(b) Because it is to be external, objective; not 

merely an internal experience 116 

II. The Later and More Common Spiritual View. 

1. By whom Advocated 117 

2. Its Unscriptural Character Shown 

(a) From distinction made between Christ's 

place of abode and scene of the Spirit's 
activity 118 

(b) From fact that Christ' s parousia is a single 

event, not a repeated one or process . .119 

(c) From accompanying events, such as a resur- 

rection of the dead, general judgment, etc. 1 19 

(d) From fact that the parousia is to be an 
open, widely conspicuous event, to be 
seen of all nations ; not merely an inter- 
nal or subjective experience 120 

173 



174 INDEX TO APPENDIX 

III. The Past- historical or Preterist View. PAG e 

Shown to be thoroughly unscriptural 
i. From its General Lack of Scripture Support . .122 
2. From its being Opposed by Scripture Arguments 

(1) Doctrine contrary to personal and visible 

form of the advent 125 

(2) Forgets to notice accompanying events. . 125 

(3) Forgets also intervening events 126 

(4) Makes it impossible to celebrate Lord's 

Supper with full meaning 126 

(5) In several writings, produced after the fall 

of Jerusalem, Christ's parousia is still 
anticipated as a future event 126 

(6) Opposed by vast predominance of Scrip- 

ture testimony and by special Scripture 
arguments 127 

Dean Alford's view 127 

SPECIAL REVIEW OF THE THEORY THAT THE PAROUSIA 

IS A PROCESS OR DISPENSATION 128 

Some truth in theory, but vastly more error. 

Objections to the Theory : 

(i) Opposed to Scripture representation that 

Christ' s return will be visible and personal . 1 30 

(2) The parousia is, in Bible teaching, a single 

event ; nowhere represented as a process . .131 

(3) Christ' s abode is now in heaven ; consequently 

he cannot be, in any bodily or literal sense, 
also on earth 132 

(4) The parousia will take place not before the 

end of time, or ' ' the last day " 133 

But little hope for man in any of these rational- 
istic theories. 



INDEX TO APPENDIX 175 

TOPIC B 
WERE THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS MISTAKEN ? 

Yes; if we confine attention only to individual ex- 
pressions, with no change of belief 137 

No; if we consider expressions more in general, 

and as lacking fixed or enduring character . .137 

TOPIC C 

THE TWO RESURRECTIONS 

1. Quotation on Pre-millennial Side 142 

2. Quotation on Post-millennial Side 143 

3. Quotation on side of belief in two resurrections, 

but with limited character of first 146 

Moses Stuart' s view of scene of millennium . . .147 
TOPIC D 

MILLENNIAL THEORIES AND DIFFICULTIES 

I. Theories. 

The Augustinian, the Grotian, theory of new church 
organization, Moses Stuart' s view, pre-millen- 
nialism and post-millennialism 147 

// Difficulties. 

(a) From obscurity of language in Rev. 20:4-6 . 150 

(b) From fact that nowhere else in Scripture is 

millennium clearly taught ...150 

Advantages of Method Used in this Book, of Treating the 
Millennium. 

(1) Gives from other Scriptures than Rev. 20: 4-6, 
a full, definite and consistent doctrine of 
Christ' s parousia 151 



I76 INDEX TO APPENDIX 

PAGB 

(2) Is amply supported by Scripture. Even the 

passage in Rev. 20 is not wholly set aside, but 
treated as a mystery 151 

(3) All duties connected with Scripture doctrine of 
parousia are provided for 152 

TOPIC E 

WHO, OR WHAT IS ANTICHRIST? 

Great variety of views held, and justification of 

position taken by this book 152 

TOPIC F 

GOG AND MAGOG, ok THE LAST GREAT BATTLE 

Scripture indications, and opinions advanced by 

Lieutenant Totten and others 156 

TOPIC G 

THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT AND ITS BEARING UPON 
THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS 

General description of the movement and explana- 
tion of its real and probable significance . .160 

TOPIC II 
PREDICTIVE PROPHECY AND THE HIGHEB CRITICISM 

Real or predictive prophecy shown to be both pos- 
sible and attested by fact. As integral an 
element of Scripture as any other 16$ 

TOPIC I 
ADDENDUM 

Recent views and literature concerning the advent 168 



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